The eagle’s nest has expanded its club opportunities for the 2021-2022 school year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The newest additions to MSD’s 80 clubs include Philosophy Club, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Club and the Thirst Project Club. 

Philosophy Club, founded by seniors Erika Ryan and Isabella Cristancho, is a co-curricular club for students to educate themselves within the world of philosophy. 

“We were looking to share our love for wisdom with whoever wanted to listen. We saw that there are very few philosophy clubs at the high school level, and we wanted to de-stigmatize the thought that you need to be highly knowledgeable to understand and apply topics,” Cristancho said. 

The Philosophy Club executive board members teach members about a different philosopher every month and meet every Tuesday in room 929. At the end of the month, the board creates a game day meeting on Kahoot to see the members’ understanding of the philosopher, giving the winner prizes at the end. 

“We will be teaching our Philos using PowerPoint presentations made so kindly by our Philosophy board and through active discussion on social and historical philosophical topics,” Cristancho said. 

The goals of the Philosophy Club are to educate students and to become an honor society one day, similar to college clubs.

“We hope to achieve a large number of people who are more comfortable with the broad topic that is Philosophy, and who learn to love wisdom and value experience,” Cristancho said. “We also hope to become an honor society at a high school level and dive a little deeper each year with an amazing and committed board.” 

Founders Reese Garrity and Keri Spiegel created the RBG club, based on the remembrance and achievements of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to educate students on self empowerment and promote feminism within the school.

“After RBG died, I wanted to honor her memory since she is such an inspiration to me and so many others,” Spiegel said. “The purpose of our club is to promote feminism and try to prevent misogyny. Our club provides a safe space for girls who are uncomfortable at school or in their home.”

The RBG Club meets three Fridays per month in room 633 and focuses on educating their members. 

“We are using PowerPoint, but our club is very interactive, so a majority of the club is through discussions,” Spiegel said. 

Spiegel and Garrity are looking for students who truly want to participate in their club, desiring students who want to learn, promote and talk about feminism in school and back at home. 

“We are looking for students who actually want to be in the club and want to participate. We also need students who go above and beyond and are excited to be in the club,” Spiegel said. “We hope to expand this club and have students who are interested and excited to be in it. We want to make a difference in the school and fight against sexism.”

Founders Riley Tromer and Connor Warfel created the Thirst Project Club to spread awareness at MSD about the global water crisis and raise money to provide clean drinking water for communities without it. 

“Two years ago, Connor and I went to a Key Club meeting after school, and we learned about the Thirst Project and what it was about,” Tromer said. “We realized that this didn’t just deserve to be just one project a year, it deserved more. We wanted to bring that to our school.”

Every third Thursday of the month in the media center, Tromer and Warfel educate their club members on the project and the current global water crisis. 

The club is looking for students devoted to the cause and genuinely want to learn and contribute to the Thirst Project, a global youth water activism organization. The club members aim to raise money for the larger organization and spread more awareness.

“Our goals with the club are to educate more people in our community about the water crisis and what Thirst Project is doing to help end it, and then to raise $12,000 collectively as a club,” Warfel said. “Raising $12,000 would mean that we have given Thirst Project enough money to build a well in a community in Eswatini. Building a well in a community would supply them with clean drinking water for at least 40 years.”

The founders of these new clubs look forward to providing new experiences to their members and achieving their goals.

This story was originally published in the October 2021 Eagle Eye print edition.