“Something about that self expression of any type is what I consider fashion,” said Romeo Klobucar, the leader of Community High’s Fashion Club.

Klobucar founded the CHS Fashion Club. They meet every week; they go through a slideshow about fashion; discuss fashion history and movements and trends; and plan events. This year they plan on hosting another movie night, having sewing nights and even putting together a  fashion shows. At the end of meetings, they play a game called toot or boot where they rate their favorite red carpet outfits.

Klobucar is very involved with and passionate about fashion. He plans to go to an art college and will potentially minor in fashion. He wants to keep fashion illustration in his artwork.  What attracts Klobucar to fashion so deeply is the level of self expression. He finds all the ways people dress and choose to present themselves really interesting because that is a way of their self- expression.  

“Self-expression is what makes you unique largely and it’s important that you express yourself however you want to,” Klobucar said.

A new club for climate action enthusiasts and passionate students, the Greta Thunberg Club — named after the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, recently in the news for sailing across the Atlantic in three months to avoid the effect of planes on the environment — is focused on reducing waste and taking steps to improve the climate, as well as lobbying for legislature and bans. Upcoming projects include making homemade household products to decrease plastic, working to reduce waste in Kerrytown and raising money to restore the Amazon rainforest after the recent wildfires in August.

Leaders shouted over the din of the Club Fair to advertise and set out candy in a dish thoughtfully made of a recycled paper bag. The Greta Thunberg club differs from the similar and well known Ecology Club because it is more focused on “promoting climate change awareness.

The Thunberg Club is a well-needed addition to the diverse clubs available at Community High School, especially with the increasing interest in climate change among the younger generation. Club leaders and founders Nina Beardsley and Grace Bradley hope the new club will increase activity around advocating for climate reforms and give students a platform to advocate; they also plan to work closely with The Sunrise Movement in Ann Arbor. With the climate strikes last year inspired by Greta, and the coming ones this year fast approaching, the club has a busy first year ahead of them.

“[Climate change] is such a pressing issue for everyone, but many people don’t treat it like one or recognize that,” said Bradley. “I want to help make people aware and involved so we can make changes to the way we live now, so that we can have a place for people to live years from now.” As she has become more invested in doing her part, she has taken more interest in spreading awareness and showing others how to make small lifestyle changes.

Greta Thunberg Club meets Friday during lunch in Marcy’s Room (317).

Ever since their sophomore year, Geneve Thomas-Palmer, Zoe Buhalis, Mali Chappell-Lakin and Lily Sickman-Garner, have been co-presidents of Feminist Club. When they joined the club, it was being led by a few seniors that were about to graduate.

“It was our last meeting of the year, and at the meeting before, they had asked who was willing to step in,” said Thomas-Palmer. “My friends Lily, Mali, Zoe and I all volunteered.”

The four friends had many ideas for the club, and were excited to get started. They hoped the club could be a place where people feel comfortable sharing what they care about and making some new friends.

“It creates a nice community and I think it also gives us a forum to create change,” said Chappell-Lakin. “It’s really nice to have a space to go once a week that I know is safe and supportive.”

Once a week, this club meets in Room 305. They start with a check-in and a question of the day. They then discuss current events and happenings, often reading articles or watching videos. They are always working to do more in the community. Last year, they partnered with the Stapleton forum to do an amenities drive, and they hope to get a survey in the forum bulletin about consent. One thing they hope to work on is making feminism more inclusive, and spreading the message “of what feminism really is.”

“People should join Mock Trial because it’s the best sport in the world,” said Martha Ribant, a current member of the Community High School (CHS) Mock Trial team.

Mock Trial is a staple club at CHS with a long and strong history. The team has won the state mock trial championship eight times, with four of those in the past decade.

“I’ve heard mock trial called [the] ‘Pretend Lawyer Olympics,’ which is a pretty good description,” said Charlie Solomon, a junior at CHS and Mock Trial B team co-captain last year. “We’ll get a pretend legal case, which includes witness affidavits or statements, rules of evidence and exhibits. We then audition for various roles in that case. We spend the next several months preparing and memorizing stuff for the trial.”

Typically, the team practices every Tuesday in Chloe’s room at the beginning of the school year starting in October. In the spring, the team competes against other teams in the Washtenaw County Regional Tournament. If they advance from regionals, the team has the opportunity to compete in the state tournament and potentially the national competition.

“There are a multitude of reasons why someone might join Mock Trial,” Solomon said. “It can really help improve public speaking skills, as we do that a lot in trials and in normal practice. There’s also a lot of acting, for witnesses especially.”

This year, the Mock Trial team aims to uphold its reputation as a powerhouse program in the state of Michigan, but to team members, the club is more about relationships than competition.

“I’ve met some really great people there,” Solomon said. “It’s awesome for new kids looking to get to know people. If people are unsure about joining the club, just come to the first meeting. I know it seems complicated, but we’ll explain it all.”

A club dedicated to community service and giving back, Service Club is run by seniors Ruby Taylor, Chava Makman-Levinson and Paige Duff. They meet every Wednesday in room 207. When they meet during school, they discuss projects they could embark on and create posters for fundraisers. Most of the time, Service Club meets outside of school to do various acts of volunteer work. In the past, the group has helped out at soup kitchens, or volunteered at the Leslie Science Center and raised money for SafeHouse Center through a sticker drive. The events outside of school are never mandatory, but members are encouraged to attend because it will “make you feel great afterwards,” according to Taylor.

Service Club was started four years ago by Sadie Zinn, a senior in the Dewoskin forum when Taylor was a freshman. Taylor decided to join Service Club because as a freshman, it was a good way to meet new people and make a difference in the community.

“Everyone’s super enthusiastic, follows through and is excited to do the work,” Taylor said. “Everyone’s got a lot of good ideas. [I love] seeing the whole thing unfold.”

This is Taylor’s fourth year in Service Club, and she wants this year to be the best; she loves the satisfaction of helping out the community in various ways and getting to hang out with some of her best friends while she does it. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you want to get out of this club —volunteering is for everyone and it makes you feel great, Taylor said..  

“It’s a great experience,” Taylor added. “I encourage everyone to try it.”

“Young Democrats Club is for anyone who wants to come to a place where they can talk about political issues and current events, and try to make a difference in the community,”  said Nina van der Velde, a senior and prominent member of the Young Democrats Club.

If you are a student  looking to become more politically active, Young Democrats (Young Dems for short) is the place for you. They organize and participate in marches, walkouts and political events around Ann Arbor, as well as having occasional debates with the Huron Young Conservatives club. Participating in these debates provides perspective and encourages students usually surrounded by people with similar thoughts to break out of their shells.

“There’s a ton of political posters [at Community], so the people who have different political views don’t feel like they can speak up,” van der Velde said. Participating in a debate, though, lets them see that not everyone in Ann Arbor has the same political views.

Leaders of the Young Dems Club are expecting the club to explode with newcomers this year.

“Last year we didn’t have any new people, but we had a lot of seniors,” van der Velde said. “So now that they’ve gone, we’re looking to refresh the club and start back up again.”

With the current rocky political climate, they are hoping that they will have a lot to talk about at their meetings on Mondays at lunch Maneesha’s room. Young Democrats Club gives everybody a chance to speak up and share their political views with their peers.

Board Game Club is one of Community High’s only after-school clubs. Members play games from Robert’s impressive collection or bring their own games. Popular choices include Magic the Gathering, Keyforge, Seven Wonders, Kemet, Tofu Kingdom and Ticket to Ride. Community High School junior Charlie Solomon attends Board Game club very frequently; he enjoys playing board games to cool off after a long week of school. Solomon describes the club as very casual and low commitment. He specifically recalls one session last year, right after a new game, Keyforge, came out: He fondly remembers how everyone got game materials and then sat down to play.

“With clubs, you can meet new people who have similar interests to you,” said Solomon. “And I think that’s really neat.”

Community High School sophomore Sylvie Swerdlow also attends Board Game Club. She said she was surprised by the number of students who attended.

“It’s like a Friday after school, and you think everyone would want to go home, so I’m always surprised at how many people want to stay and play board games,” Swerdlow said. “It’s a great way to start off my weekend.”

The club meets every Friday after school in Robert’s room.

“It’s a place where any judgements get put aside because we all have to work together on a piece of art,” Lacey Cooper said when asked about Community Ensemble Theatre (CET).

When she joined during CET for the fall musical “Into the Woods” during her freshman year, she was at a brand new school where she didn’t know many people. However, she soon discovered its warm environment helped her meet new people and feel less isolated.

“I could be myself without worrying what other people thought of me,’ Cooper said. CET is currently working on their fall show, “School of Rock”, which she said is a show full of personality.

“No matter how [you] want to contribute to the show, there’s a place for [you],” Cooper said. She said that sometimes people don’t even realize that they love theatre, but then they “on a whim end up discovering a love for theatre of something related to theatre.”

So, if you have a love for theater — or if you don’t — and you want to meet new people, join CET. To learn more, talk to Quinn Strassel, director of CET, or anyone who participates in cast or crew.

Poetry Club has been a staple of Community High School (CHS) for over a decade. It serves as a safe space for students to express themselves and support each other.

“I think it’s made me a better writer,” said J Kincaid-Beal, a sophomore at CHS. “I’ve just had time to write, and more experience, and I’m listening to poems and reading other people’s poems.”

Martha Ribant, a CHS junior, also feels that attending poetry club meetings has improved her writing.

“Just the ability to go somewhere and know that this is the 45 minutes that I’m going to spend on poetry every week has always encouraged me,” Ribant said.

Club facilitator and former CHS teacher Ellen Stone believes that learning how to write poetry is a vital skill. She emphasized the effect writing poetry can have on your language skills as a whole.

“[Writing poetry] helps you with the musicality of language, and it helps you with sort of a core meaning of language,” Stone said.

At meetings, students write their own poetry, read poems by both each other and professional poets, and snack on the provided food. The club also hosts guest speakers, giving students a unique opportunity to learn and gain inspiration from professionals in the field.

“When you graduate from high school, you should know what your voice is,” Stone said. “A lot of students, I think, are really held back. They think they don’t have anything to say or they might not think that they’re good enough. If you come to Poetry Club, I think you can discover what you want to say. And that’s a really powerful thing.”

Poetry club meets on Wednesdays at lunch in Robert’s room.

One club is different from the rest at Community High School: Zebrotics, the school robotics team. At club fair, the team had their competition robot from the 2018-2019 school year set up in the hallway for students to drive around, and they gained around 10 new members. They had their first meeting three days later to discuss which roles new members would take.

“We got people sort of starting to think about what they want to do with us, because there’s a lot of different things you can do with robotics,” said the team’s captain, Elijah Nation. “[You can do] programming, electrical, engineering or actually building [the robot], and then [we have] our business team, who deals with all of our finances.”

Every year, Zebrotics competes in the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) robotics competition. This year, the team hopes to compete in the state competition for the first time, which will require success in two district-level competitions. Their strategy is to compete in a competition outside the state so it won’t count toward the team’s standing, but they have extra opportunity to improve.

“There’s nothing like putting [the robot] into that competition environment to see what breaks and what doesn’t work,” said the faculty leader, Christia West. “So if we can get that done ahead of time and then improve on our design, we’ll be in a much better place to maybe qualify for states.”

“We want everyone to come: any color, any shape,” said Community High School (CHS) senior, Sophia Scarnecchia. “Different personalities and opinions are what makes the club so memorable, and the supportive environment is how I met many of my closest friends.”

The Black Student Union (BSU) is a club at CHS that is primarily student driven, but also led by Janelle Johnson and Kevin Davis.

“Our focus is to present all the great things black people have done throughout history that seem to be forgotten or ignored,” Scarnecchia said.

BSU is ahead of the game, having already planned out many things for the upcoming year. The beloved tradition of Soul Food Friday will continue this year in November, where BSU offers a lunch of traditional African American cooking to all CHS students and staff for $6 a plate as a way to fund many of its projects for the year.

This year, BSU is focused on diversifying the club due to CHS lack of diversity in comparison to many other AAPS schools.

Other than Soul Food Friday, BSU will be leading the MLK assembly again this year, along with doing many things around the school in February for Black History Month. These are only a few of the things that BSU members will be doing this year, in hopes to inform and leave their mark on CHS.

BSU encourages all students to consider joining the club this year; they will be meeting on Wednesdays in room 222.

On Wednesdays in room 306, members of the Genes in Diseases and Symptoms (GIDAS) club learn about genetics, diseases and computational biology.

Now led by co-presidents senior Nina van der Velde and junior Mori Ono, Community High’s GIDAS chapter stays busy, always working on their next task. For now, the club is deciding on this year’s disease of focus. Every year, a critical staple of GIDAS’s many objectives is to fundraise for a researcher. The money raised for the researcher is determined by what disease the club decides to study, or their “disease of focus,” as the club calls it.

New members joining the club will take a part of the activity and will have the chance to suggest different diseases that they find significant to them. After hearing out all of the options, the club will vote and dedicate their future fundraisers for that cause. After their inaugural meeting, GIDAS is discussing opioid addiction, drug resistant bacteria, eating disorders and causes involving antibiotics.

Even if biology is not what students plan on pursuing post-high school, it’s still a great way for anyone to learn more about genes and diseases –– which is typically not a subject covered extensively in high schools.

“For me, while I don’t really plan on going into the biology field, I find genetics really interesting,” Ono said. “GIDAS is a really interesting intersection between learning about science, doing your own research, fundraising and giving back to the community.”

But the club is also just a fun way to learn more about science and experience it in a different way, rather than just sitting in class listening to the material.

“GIDAS is a really cool way to learn more about [biology and genetics] and see them in a different way through computational biology,” co-president van der Velde said.

Philosophy club is a relatively new club at CHS; it was created last year by junior Sophie Fetter.

“In Philosophy Club, we research or look at a topic that is ethically confusing,” Fetter said. “We take up different sides on the topic and we have little debates. We debate both sides of an issue and discuss what we should do about this thing.”

Last year, the club focused mainly on ethics; this year, they hope to discuss more topics related to the branches of philosophy.

“Philosophy is important because a lot of the decisions that we make in our life are based on the philosophies and the moral values that we hold,” Fetter said. “Everyone has their own moral compass; everyone is a compilation of various ethical theories and what they decide to do, which we don’t immediately think about.”

Anyone who joins this club will start to understand everyday ethics and different ways of thinking. Fetter hopes new members will begin to think clearly about new topics. She encourages people with different philosophical educations and ideologies to join.

“We will have some really interesting discussions,” Fetter said. “We’re not trying to solve anything, because these are debates that have been going on for hundreds of years and are not really necessarily solvable. It’s not figuring out problems; it’s discussing problems.”

Run by Community High School (CHS) teacher Robbie Stapleton, Depression Awareness Group (DAG) focuses on spreading awareness about depression and anxiety, as well as eliminating negative stigma associated with the cause.

Members learn about the brain, specifically in regards to depression and anxiety; they also learn how to handle a situation in which somebody is in need of help. The club is a small group with nine current members.

“If there are a lot of people, it is going to create more distractions,” said senior Robbie White, a member of DAG. “But if you have a smaller group of very driven people it just makes it easier.”

DAG invites guest speakers to CHS to talk about their relationships and struggles with mental health. During finals week last year, DAG set up a motivation station with bubbles and candies tied with motivational messages. They also put posters up all along the hallways of CHS.

“I have struggled with my mental health, and I have also lost one of my close friends to suicide,” White said. “So I decided that raising awareness is crucial for kids our age.”

Some of their goals for the year are to replace the posters that were taken down over the summer and to bring in more guest speakers to the school. Their main focus is to express to others that they are not alone with their struggles of mental health.

“We want to show people that everyone can relate to this,” White said. “It is normal to struggle with mental health and it is normal to ask for help.”

Community High School’s Book Club leader, senior Jordan De Padova, looks forward to reading with his peers and sharing out about different books.

“I’m excited to have a reason to make time to read,” said De Padova. He explained that being abroad most of the summer without WiFi or LTE really caused him to dive into a book instead of watching something on his phone.

“I found myself reading a lot more and I really enjoyed that,” De Padova said.

At the meetings, which occur every other Friday in the library, the group will vote on a book to read together and discuss what they liked or disliked about the book.

De Padova feels more productive when he’s reading. He stated that reading is actually really fun when you get into it.

“I used to read a lot as a kid...probably early middle school and earlier,” De Padova said. “And then I kind of stopped doing it as much and definitely got into watching videos and shows. He hopes to have fun while discussing a variety of books this year.

On Friday, Sept. 20, a majority of Community High School (CHS) students were not at school. Instead, students chose to forgo their afternoon classes to protest against the government’s climate policy. Three days later, Ecology Club was back to work, doing their part to make CHS a more environmentally conscious school.

Ecology Club is led by Courtney Kiley, who is now in her eighth year as the leader of the club.

“I keep doing the club because the kids really enjoy it, and I think what we do is very important, and every person needs to do their part,’’ Kiley said.

In the past year, Ecology Club has set up compost bins all around the school to reduce solid waste produced by They also revitalized the rain garden last April and it now serves as a beautiful site for everyone around Kerrytown to witness.

“I encourage everyone to join,’’ said CHS junior, Eli Hausman. “You are able to really contribute to the school and Ann Arbor as a whole, which is something not all clubs can say.”

The club held their first meeting on Monday, Sept. 23, where they discussed their plans for the year. They plan to visit University of Michigan’s biological station this year, as well as raising their own salmon and a number of other fun activities that Kiley has planned.

Although Ecology Club has already held their first meeting, they still encourage students to come on Mondays to Courtney’s room to have a good time and make some new friends.

While most Community High School clubs and their subject matters remain earthbound, there is one that casts more lofty aspirations: To space.

Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) meets Mondays during lunch in room 314. It’s CHS’s chapter of SEDS, an international organization dedicated to promoting space exploration and getting students involved in the field.

“I always wanted to start a space-related club,” said club president and founder Mori Ono. “I want to get to know others who are interested in space and share that passion, [as well as] use that passion to work together on space-related topics.”

This is Ono’s second year running the club. He founded it last year after learning about the organization at the International Space Development Conference.

“I was already planning on starting a space-related club and it was great to know that there’s a larger organization that could support me and my endeavors,” Ono said.

This year, Ono has a lot of things planned for the club, hoping to expand on the club’s successes of last year. He wants to do projects; trips to museums, observatories and labs; bring in guest speakers; and collaborate with the University of Michigan SEDS chapter.

“[We’ve done projects like] model rockets, because you learn a lot building them and it’s very interesting to watch them launch,” Ono said. “[This year] I’m also going to have guest speakers so you get to meet the people who are involved in space-related activities. We’ll also have discussions and presentations about certain space-related topics and space news so that we know what’s going on in space.”

As it starts to get colder, Ski Club is switching it up a bit: instead of going on their annual ski trip on Presidents’ Day weekend, it will most likely be on Martin Luther King Day weekend.

The presidents are seniors Mazey Perry and Morraina Tuzinsky, and are welcoming all grades to join their club. No skiing or snowboarding experience is required to join, and they don’t meet weekly like other clubs: Instead, they meet two to three times a year, mostly to plan their trips. They’ve traveled up north and to Vermont in recent years; this year they plan on going up north.

“Be sure to bring comfy clothes, like a good pair of sweatpants,” Perry said. “Bring more ski clothes then you’re going to need. [Mostly] we ski, go to dinner, hang out and go to bed.”

Perry remembers her first trip with the ski club as being the most fun weekend she’s had. She was the youngest of her friend group and a freshman in the senior-run club. That year, they went to the Smugglers’ Notch Resort. She stayed in Ski Club because of her first trip, and last year she became co-presidents with Morraina Tuzinsky.

If you’re interested in joining Ski Club, watch out for slides in the Forum Bulletin about the meetings.

The Queer-Straight Alliance, better known as QSA, is a club that has been going on for nearly 20 years now. It started when Chloe Root, now the club’s faculty leader, was a student at CHS. When Root started teaching at CHS in 2011, she was asked to become the advisor, and the club has been under her watch since.

Every meeting, around ten students discuss issues going on in the LGBTQ+ community. QSA provides a safe place for people of all identities to hang out, be themselves and ask questions.

“It is good that students, as well as teachers, know that they have a place where they can be open and ask questions,” Root said.

Teachers often come in to ask questions about how they can be more supportive of their LGBTQ+ students. The club has a box better know as the “BQB,” which stands for “big queer box/bowl.” There, anyone can submit an anonymous question questions to be answered by the club. These questions can vary from people asking how to come out to their family or how to flirt with other people.

QSA meets nearly every Friday during lunch in Chloe’s room.