The first club meetings were held on Tuesday, October 20th, following the virtual club fair on October 15th. Clubs, which are generally held in person, were moved online, causing both new and old club leaders to change how they run their activities. Leaders of new clubs this year discussed how they have been running clubs remotely, and their plans for the upcoming year.
One of many new clubs available to Fieldston students this year is Allies Activists and Leaders (AAL). This club is led by Aiasha Siddiqui (IV), Dream Champell-Aldrich (IV), Emma Friedman (IV), and Francesca Grossberg (IV). The faculty advisors are Mr. Marsh, the Diversity Coordinator for the Upper School, and Mx. Wild, the Director of the Progressive Teaching Institute. Around twenty students signed up to be a part of this new program. The AAL plans to host impactful discussions about each of their own allyships and how they can encourage others to be allies as well. The leaders are not only focused on one type of allyship, instead, they want to push the club members to think about the intersectionality of the different communities they are allies too. Members of the AAL club will also engage in roundtable discussions about current events.
The idea for the AAL club was sparked by the Black Lives Matter protests that occurred this year. Grossberg said, “Fieldston needed a consistent space to debrief the history that continues to be made around us,” while explaining how she and her fellow club leaders came up with the idea. In the future, the AAL club plans on including the whole school in their work by hosting an assembly. At some point within the next few years, they hope to bring the entire school together to discuss activism and allyship.
Additionally, “Shark Tank: Fieldston’s Young Entrepreneurs” has been added to Fieldston’s list of clubs. The leaders of Fieldston’s Shark Tank are Daniella Budoff (IV) and Rex Hechter (IV). Ms. Dubois, an upper school math teacher, is this club’s advisor. In the Shark Tank Club, the leaders give members a different topic every year for them to base their products off of. This year’s topic is backpack essentials. The students can work by themselves or in groups to come up with an invention centered around this topic. First, in their groups, the club members will create an online prototype using a 3D prototype designer. Then, the groups will create a presentation that they will show to the club facilitators. After watching the presentation, the leaders will decide if they approve of the creation. If the presentation is approved, it gets presented to the entire club. Finally, the club runs through a Shark Tank-like simulation where students vote for one product that the whole club works to physically build.
Budoff and Hechter hope that they are able to build a tangible prototype and life-sized model of the selected product in person. Their goal is to allow students to work collaboratively through the physical creation of visuals like posters, as well as online mediums. Hechter and Budoff came up with the idea for this club last February and have been working hard to perfect it since. The club is inspired by the hit television show, “Shark Tank”. Budoff said her main goal for the Shark Tank club is to teach the members how to “turn creative ideas into persuasive presentations.” Fieldston’s young entrepreneurs will not only have fun during each club meeting but will also learn important persuasion tactics.
The Fieldston Film Club, run by Form IV students Alex Brooks and Sophia Gutierrez, and Form V students Dylan Jackson and Sarah Kaiser, has been a success. The faculty advisors for the club are Mr. Montera and Mr. Buskey. With 17 members, the goal of the club is to watch clips of certain movies (chosen by the club leaders), and later assign the rest of the movie to have students watch on their own. In the following weeks, club members will work collaboratively to discuss and analyze the movie.
Brooks said, “We started this club because we love to watch movies and want to bring people together to discuss films.” The overarching objective is to allow students to identify and discuss genre, director, and style studies. He said “Sophia and I had spoken about creating this club for a while, but we didn’t know that Sarah and Dylan had their own film club. We wanted to make it a reality so we reached out to them and we were able to work together to make it a reality.” All leaders hope that in the future they will be able to move their viewing to the Stu Fac to watch movies together.
It has definitely been a significant adjustment for both students and club leaders, however, new club creators have been able to adjust to the new guidelines. Though many aspects have changed, new online tools and materials have allowed students to work in collaboration with each other without being together in person.
Written by Elizabeth Walker and Rex Hechter
