Jacob Marshall and Marcus Payne
Staff Writers
Clubs are a great way for students to get involved in the school and show school spirit. This year Jamesville-DeWitt High School has eight new clubs including Grill Club and Art and Life.
One of the clubs new to the art department is Art and Life. This club was started by senior Nikki Jaing, who is also its president, and is advised by art teachers Jacob Brodsky and Mark McIntyre. In this club students use materials around the art room to make art. For example, one of Art and Life’s first projects was making stamps using ink and leaves. Each of the students in Art and Life is making a portfolio, which will be shown in an art show at the end of the school year.
This club is not only home to students that take art classes, but also has kids in it that do not. In fact, this is one of the things Mr. Brodsky enjoys about Art and Life. “I enjoy seeing many new faces, which means that there are a lot of kids that want to do art, but may not have room on their schedule for it,” Mr. Brodsky says.
Jaing got the idea to start this club when she found out that the school didn’t have an art club. “You can’t do math, computer science or coding for life. You have to do something that’s fun,” said Jaing. Art and Life has had four meetings so far this school year. Thirty-five people have signed up for Art and Life. At each meeting there has been around 15 students. Jaing says that the club is planning on going to the Everson Museum and Chittenango Zoo. She hopes that by doing these activities and attending meetings, people will build relationships and by the end of the year they will have built a community. “I don’t really care about the quality of art. I just want people to have fun doing art, build relationships and forget about the stress of homework and life,” said Jaing.
Both senior Paige Petrell and freshman Cassie Cappelletti think Jaing’s goal of building a community is being met. “I’ve made some new friends, (Jiang) is one of them and I also hang out with some of my other friends I made this school year,” said Cappelletti. Petrell says that the art and life club is a very “chill” club with little pressure. “We work together to get projects done. We’re friends and we’re a close knit group that will welcome other people and just have fun,” said Cappelletti.
Although this is Mr. Brodsky’s first time advising a club, he has goals for it. Mr. Brodsky says that he wants the students that join this club to be self motivated to do their artwork, and be prepared for their meetings. Mr. Brodsky makes sure that the club advisers run through the exercise before the meeting. He wants them to understand it so that they are ready for any problems that may arise.
Art and Life meets every tuesday. Their next meeting will be on Oct. 30.
Grill club is one of the eight new clubs that have joined J-DHS. Grill club is a club designed to teach students how to have good grilling skills, have a good time, and most importantly, how to grill safely. Senior club leader Nico Modesti said the club will have a happy, healthy, fun grill environment. He also said the club will teach the members how to grill and “how to act like dads.”
Grill Club was started when senior Jack Underhill went to Colorado in May of 2016 to see old friends and go to his brother’s college graduation. While there, he visited his friend’s high school. He noticed that they had a grill club so he thought it would be a good idea to bring a grill club to J-DHS, and he did.
They have only had one meeting which was just for organization purposes. They didn’t grill any food during the meeting but they hopefully will next meeting thanks to the grills that were lent for use from people who support the club. The members, Underhill, Modesti, and club adviser and math teacher Mike Klemperer will be grilling the food.
The Grill Club is planning on charging money for the food they cook. “The cost depends on what we’re grilling and we’re going to mix it up event-to-event and (it) won’t cost too much,” said Underhill. This money will be going to some good causes such as efforts to help aid those affected by the recent hurricanes and earthquakes. It will also be given to different charities and the JD Booster club.
The food will most likely be sold outside the main entrance but if it’s at a sports game it might be sold down by the field. They are going to hopefully sell the food the week of Oct. 29, but it depends on how much funding they got from the PTG.
During the winter it will be freezing and snowing but the club doesn’t think they will have trouble grilling. “We will have tents that don’t have walls for events that can be used to set up when it’s not frigid and we will take advantage of any nice days that do happen in the winter,” Underhill said.
The Grill Club was unsure on when the next meeting will be. He also said “We’re always accepting new members.” So if you’re not in the Grill Club but are interested then listen for their next meeting on the announcements in the coming days.
