Participating in clubs has always been a favorite activity among Germantown Academy’s students. For many, it’s a chance to explore a specific interest and build connections with peers who share that common passion. When a student enjoys something that is unrepresented by a club, they have the ability to create something new. Each year, that same freedom refreshes the GA club scene.
A traditionally well-liked club making its return this year is Sports Med Club. After taking a year off last year, Holden Jackson ‘27 and Justin Huang ‘27 have revived the club and look to make it better than ever.
“I enjoyed the club so much Freshman year. Sports medicine is important to me, and to others among the community”, Jackson said.
Attracting people is typically a challenge for many club leaders. For Jackson and Huang, this problem is magnified due to their title as a new club.
To help fix this, club leaders utilize their ability to email large groups of people (namely those who have already signed up for their club) about upcoming meetings and/or other events. Another way to advertise a club is through Morning Meeting announcements, which ensures that the entirety of the student body will hear details on the club’s upcoming meeting.
For sports med, this typically means watching highlights from various sports and analyzing specific injuries and recovery processes.
“I find analyzing injuries to be really interesting to me”, Sports Med member Connor McNichol ‘27 said. “When you can watch a sports play of something going wrong and then understand the medical side to it, I find that very interesting.”
A second club on the rise has been Film Club. Ravi Bhatt ‘27 and John Brightcliffe ‘27 created the club in hopes of bringing students together through the shared passion of movies.
“This year, John and I have really connected over cinema and realized that many other students share the same love towards movies like us which led us to create Film Club,” Bhatt said.
The newly established club has found success going into the winter, drawing in students who are eager to talk about everything from classics to personal favorites. The meetings have typically been centered on open-ended conversations about what students enjoy from movies, leaving a space where students can freely learn and share their opinions.
Brightcliffe noted that the club’s recent success comes from the laid back environment the club creates.
“There’s not really that much pressure. Anyone can just show up, talk about the movies they enjoy, and then listen to what everybody else thinks”, Brightcliffe said.
Together, Sports Med Club and Film Club are two examples that reflect how students are taking advantage of their abilities to make a difference in the GA community. As the year progresses, Jackson, Huang, Bhatt and Brightcliffe hope they can inspire more students to get involved as leaders, either by joining a club or starting their own.