“Attention Warhawks! Do you want to find a proactive way to end the stigma surrounding mental illnesses? Then join Active Minds, a new club focused on suicide prevention and mental health awareness that meets every other Tuesday.”  

From the morning announcements to Instagram feeds, a noticeably greater number of clubs have arisen this school year. The surprising spike in club numbers sparks the debate of whether these activities are meant to serve an important cause or meant as an added bonus for college applications.

“There is so much pressure for college nowadays. [Students] are told that being part of clubs and organizations is the one way ticket to get there, but the thing is it’s not a one way ticket,” the teacher sponsor for the Active Minds club, Michaela Wolf said. “I think it’s more important to follow these greater calls of passion and service and making a difference in the community.”

Clubs such as Active Minds have an obvious mission to help those in need while also engaging students within the community. Service to the community is a common goal among many Madison clubs along with supplementing the subjects already being taught in the classrooms. Mad Collect for a Cause and the Chemistry Club respectively, are examples of great activities that can benefit both the community and individuals. While clubs are supposed to be enjoyable, they also have the potential to greatly influence the surrounding community.

“Starting a club, especially a community service club, can affect the community a lot, because [it is] changing people’s lives, even if it is just in the littlest ways,” the president of the new Food for Folks club Zemzem Lemma (’19) said.

It is important that clubs develop goals and meet high standards in order to separate themselves from other school activities. Students should participate in and establish clubs that interest them and help them impact the community, and they should also include these activities in their applications to colleges if it reveals who they are as individuals. Yet there are students who join clubs, or only go to one meeting of a club and say they are “members” for the sole purpose of making their college résumés stand out. This is something to always be mindful of when choosing which clubs are best suited to students’ interests and motivations.

“Students have really great ideas and passions that sometimes aren’t able to be explored or furthered in the school setting, so clubs are an important way for students to make their ideas concrete and come up with goals about how they can fulfill their passions,” Wolf said.