OPINION: Connecting with yourself and the community through clubs

By Brittney Haldorsen ’25

Imagine the impact that clubs could have in our community and the greater Portland area if more people devoted their participation. Recently, at the Catlin Gabel School (CGS), the rate of signing up for clubs has been substantially larger than the actual attendance.

“One of the problems is that we don't have a mechanism to track participation” and “students sign up so that they can say they are part of a club as part of an application process. And then they don't have to actually go,” expressed John Harnetiaux, the Dean of Students at CGS.

This has become a problem for CGS clubs because they can't achieve their goals without enough people attending the club meetings. Aditi Subramaniam, a junior at CGS, communicated that she saw a significant decrease in club participation from one of the clubs she leads, Reading to Leading. She stated “We had about 40 people sign up for our club. I think about 2-3 come, and the 3 are a bit ambitious.”

However, she was not upset about this, saying, “We expected this to happen and even joked about it.” Even though not everyone will show up to every club they sign up for, having these club options is still very important to CGS.

At most U.S. high schools, clubs are offered and encouraged. So what makes clubs so popular among students? These activities offer an opportunity to bring ideas that students learn in the classroom to the real world. They also allow for the community to grow stronger and become more connected.

“Before the club fair, people would create clubs, and if you knew the right people you could show up,” said Harnetiaux, commenting on how the club culture at CGS was different before COVID.

Fortunately, Kymberly Herbst, the CGS Upper School Registrar, came in to rectify this issue, creating the club fair and making it easy for everyone to access, no matter who their friends are.

Arriving in the Upper School, I recognized people were not participating much in community engagement and I wondered if participating in a variety of clubs would open that opportunity. The club fair really helped with this aspect and in my mind, clubs and community engagement are greatly connected because clubs are a great way to serve the community.

For example, there is the Bring Change to Mind club, which focuses on mental health at schools, the Environmental Action Club (EAT) which supports the climate, and the Apple Club which serves the inner Catlin community, where they try a new apple every month.

Participating in clubs helps you find your own morals and values and also what work or service you are most passionate about. Subramaniam mentioned she had the idea for Reading to Leading while in the Palma Seminar during her freshman year, as a social impact project.

“We are so invested in the work we were doing that we didn't feel like we could just wrap it up in spring and be done, so we created our club as a continuation of our project,” said Subramaniam. The love Subramaniam and her peers had for the club helped her find her passion project.

Clubs should be important to the school and to you not only because that is the case in other schools, but also because we owe it to the community. I think it’s important when attending a highly privileged school, that we find time to give back to the community. A great way to do that is through clubs.

Clubs help you get involved with the community whether it's in a more impactful way like donating your time to the houseless community or serving the community within CGS. They can help you create an abundance of connections and improve your skills in the outside world.
You can get involved with clubs by looking at the CGSA catalog. Then you can find when and where they meet, and read their descriptions. If you think the club sounds interesting, show up to the next meeting. You don’t have to have signed up at the club fair to go to a club meeting. I encourage you to show up for clubs because it helps the club leaders achieve their goals and it gives back to the community in which we hold immense privilege.