Evolving extracurriculars: how the culture of student involvement is changing
Student involvement at Cedar Shoals is unpredictable, as new clubs emerge and some older clubs go without sponsors or consistent membership. This affects students’ ability to be involved in their school community or to connect with students with similar interests. Student Government Association and Model UN sponsor Beth Mendenhall believes that offering opportunities for students to get involved is one of the most important things a school can do.
“There are always going to be students who are really good at school and prosper in that area, but there’s also going to be a lot of students who don’t really enjoy the class part or don’t always fit in. These other opportunities to shine and connect are what keep people in school and what make people learn and grow. I don’t know if I would have made it through high school without theater club and choir,”Beth Mendenhall said.
In 2024 the Clarke County School District saw a teacher retention rate of only 82%, according to the Georgia Department of Education. Mendenhall believes teacher turnover can majorly affect the opportunities for extracurricular activities offered to students.
“Clubs take a while to grow. I’ve been working on Model UN for three years, and it’s still growing and will continue to grow. So you have a lot of startups and if you have teachers leaving and new teachers starting up clubs, it takes a while for them to get established,” Mendenhall said.
English teacher Bryan Moore attended Cedar Shoals as a student from 1986 to 1990 and has taught at Cedar for 29 years. Over that time, he has observed how clubs can come and go, largely dependent on the sponsor.
“Mrs. (Mary Lynn) Zimpfer, who was a science teacher here for a long time, had a club called Positive about Cedar Shoals, and when she left that dissolved. Sometimes a teacher has their own little thing that they love doing and will really be on top of it, but then when they leave, it goes away,” Moore said.
According to Nature Club president Stella James, a junior, it can be difficult to get involved in a long-lasting club not knowing if or how long the sponsor will stay.
“The whole first semester is more for advertising your club, the second semester is when you kick things off and do stuff because people are already interested and involved, but then what happens when the teacher leaves? The whole club is gone again,” James said.
Earlier this year, James approached environmental science teacher Debbie Mitchell about starting a club focused on nature. In her second year of teaching at Cedar, Mitchell found that there were some barriers and difficulties when trying to start the club.
“I had worked at Clarke Middle and Clarke Central, where I had a similar club at both places,” Mitchell said. “I was wondering ‘what are the rules about a club? How do you go about starting one? Do people have a ride home? Is that a big deal?’”
If a student or teacher wants to start a club, they must submit a club request form, which has to be approved by the school district. Mitchell feels that the steps a teacher needs to take to start a club could be better communicated.
“We didn’t know that we needed to ask until we had already not asked. It didn’t seem like the instructions were out there to be found, and it was just that we didn’t know where to look and didn’t know who to ask,” Mitchell said. “For me, a barrier was not being sure what the rules about clubs were, and I almost felt like I wasn’t allowed to have a club.”
Principal Dr. Makeba Clark says that the application process on her end exists to make sure a club is in line with district policy and will positively contribute to the school.
“When they submit the application, I make sure that the club falls in line with board policy and I make sure that it’s a club that is inclusive and supportive of our school environment, and then it’s approved. It’s not a hard process,” Clark said.
Despite some setbacks, Cedar’s Nature Club was successfully founded and held several meetings this year. According to James, the purpose of the club is to motivate students to get outside after being indoors all day.
“It’s really easy to just come to school, do your schoolwork, go home, and then on the weekends just be in your bed, because that’s what you do on the weekends. I feel like no one goes outside and looks at anything anymore, and so I would just like to make a space where it’s easy,” James said.
Junior Omnia Mansour started her own club called The Unity Project late in 2024. She is also a member of the National Honor Society, Beta Club and the Student Government Association. She says it is important for students to start and lead their own clubs.
“I feel like there’s a lot of stigma around NHS and Beta Club that they’re only for students that are academically achieving, especially because those clubs require (community service) hours. Students doing their own club reflects the interest of other students. Then you’re able to see different things beyond NHS and Beta Club,” Mansour said.
Mansour founded The Unity Project to provide a space for students to learn, discuss and speak up about national and international issues. Her purpose for founding the club was to help educate students about humanitarian crises resulting from the Israel-Hamas war and the Sudanese Civil War.
“These issues are so silenced, and they’re never going to get better if people don’t know what’s happening and don’t know that there’s something they can do and that they can speak up about it too,” Mansour said.
Mendenhall believes in offering a wide range of clubs based on common interests or passions, such as The Unity Project or Model UN, which she sponsors.
“We could always have more niche clubs and it would be great if every student at Cedar looked around and said, ‘oh, there’s something for me.’ I think we’re getting closer to that, and it’s great from a teacher standpoint. I feel like it offers ways for students to feel connected to their school,” Mendenhall said.
Starting a club is only the first step, but any club still depends on getting students to show up. This year, Cedar’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) has been able to increase their membership through the use of social media and including fun events as a part of their meetings.
“A struggle we’ve had in the past is not getting people to show up to meetings and then not having people participate in (the agriscience fair). In the past, we’ve had significantly less students than we do this year, and I think that we have really done better at reaching out to people and offering different opportunities that we have,” FFA president Amelia Hembree said.
With more students involved, FFA has offered more service opportunities to contribute to the local community.
“We fed the homeless this year, which is something we talked about doing last year but didn’t get a chance to do. Being able to reach out to our community more is something that we’ve been working towards for a very long time, and it’s cool to see that we’re finally there,” Hembree said.
“Being able to reach out to our community more is something that we’ve been working towards for a very long time, and it’s cool to see that we’re finally there,”
While FFA has grown this year, not all clubs have. James says that it can be difficult to get involved in a club when a student doesn’t know anyone or feel welcome.
“A lot of clubs are invite-only, and even clubs that aren’t, it feels very exclusive and it’s difficult to join them when you’re already in yours and you have your friends,” James said.
On the other hand, Mitchell believes that clubs such as Nature Club exist primarily to bring people together and make new friends.
“I think it builds community, not just people being together, but people being together doing something for the actual campus, and feeling that their involvement somehow has made a difference in this place. It’s a feeling of belonging with each other and also belonging to the school,” Mitchell said.
In Moore’s opinion, the best way for clubs to get students involved is for members or sponsors to put effort into recruiting.
“Some of these kids, they’re not joiners. They’re kind of reluctant to get into that sort of thing so they kind of need that push, and they need a teacher who can spotlight them and say, ‘I think this might be good for you,’” Moore said.
Another struggle for some clubs, Moore believes, is that such a small number of students are involved in a large amount of extracurricular activities.
“A lot of times what happens is there’s the same group of kids that all the clubs are fighting for, and then they kind of overextend themselves and they can’t do everything. Then the club’s sponsors can’t get things done, because the kids have all these other things they’re involved in too,” Moore said.
Mansour has also noticed this trend. This is one of the reasons she started The Unity Project: to get all kinds of students involved.
“I feel like there’s such a small number of students that go to NHS, and it’s the same type of students that go to those clubs. I feel like we could really change that environment. I know the Minority Excellence club was to serve as a purpose to get minorities together to achieve things academically. So, getting more people involved in those clubs is so important,” Mansour said.
The Minority Excellence Club was founded three years ago to provide an opportunity for students from all different backgrounds to learn about other cultures. Social studies teacher Montu Miller, club advisor, believes that diversity in school leadership is important.
“It’s important because our student body is made up of so many different types of people that it should be a reflection of that. To me that includes administration, organizations, leaders in the schools and teachers. It should be a reflection of the student body,” Miller said.
Although the Minority Excellence club has seen a decrease in activity this year, diversity in student leadership at Cedar is still significant, according to Miller.
“I think we have pretty diverse clubs, because there are clubs specifically for diversity. There’s also other little clubs like chess club. I see those kids, and a lot of them, they’re from all kinds of different backgrounds,” Miller said.
According to Clark, many other clubs have seen a decline in membership this year. Moving forward, she says the administration will prioritize increasing student involvement.
“As this is my first year, I thought, ‘we’ve got a lot of clubs,’ but then when I look at the calendar of who meets, it’s only about five or six clubs that meet regularly. So I think going to those sponsors and really talking to them and saying, ‘okay, you’re sponsoring this club. How can we make sure that these clubs are meeting regularly and so that students are involved?’” Clark said.
