Environmentally Sound Clubs: Creating a Community for All

On the day of club rush, students flocked around the quad. Excitement was buzzing in the air as they searched for the perfect club to join. Environmentalists stumbled upon the plants and recycling club. They quickly signed their names without thinking much about it, little did they know the community they would find. 

Recently at San Marcos High School, students have been creating clubs where the main focus is helping the environment while simultaneously making a comfortable and memorable bonding experience. With this, students with a shared passion of saving the environment have a safe space to make friends and help out our community.

“… I get to hangout with my friends while also doing something nice for the environment and trying to help the atmosphere around the school,” said freshman Quinn Ray, a member of the plants and recycling club.

At school, finding a cliche or a group to be a part of can sometimes be hard. Clubs can help bring people together by forming groups of people with common interests together, everyone teams up to fulfill a goal which makes them feel like they are working towards something important. The club also helps the school stay clean by recycling plastics. 

Numerous studies have been done on the connection between extracurricular activities and academic performance, and they all demonstrate that students who take part in them achieve higher grades, have better attitudes toward learning, and have higher academic expectations.

“I really like plants and I wanted to learn more about recycling and how to help the environment… I also wanted to get community service hours,” Ray said.

When people like a topic, they are more likely to be interested in helping. When clubs create a welcoming community it can help benefit the club because it will make more people want to help and join while also making students feel more involved. 

“I think clubs that are run well help kids because if you allow students to have a welcoming environment where they can shar e their ideas they will be more focused on the club’s topic and it will allow work to be done faster, smoother, and more efficiently,” club leader Mila Poole said.

When clubs push a positive impact on people, it helps their cause further because the members will take their view back to their home. It can impact people not just in the club but also their families and peers. This helps create more of a community because these valuable topics will continue to keep growing.

“I am a lot more conscious about the environment and I’m pushing my family to recycle a lot more and focus on recycling more often instead of just mixing all of the trash and putting it in the dumpster,” freshman Audrey Pearl said.

“I think the club is teaching people how to be more conscious about the environment and that the earth is our home and we should care about it. It’s also teaching people ways to do stuff in their own homes that will help the environment,” Ray said.