There are now over 60 clubs at Hickman and new clubs have become available for students to join. While new clubs are forming, both new and established clubs have had issues with scheduling meetings and dealing with this year’s security systems. Additionally new clubs have had trouble forming.

Emma Hawley (12), a founder of Jewish Club, explained the process of making a club, saying that they had to write a constitution, get a number of signatures, get a table at Kewpie Fest, and get a teacher sponsor.

Clubs that have formed recently had trouble forming because people didn’t know the process of forming a club. This was the case for Emma and Joel Narrol (12), the founders of Jewish Club, who didn’t know where to start when they made Jewish Club at the beginning of the year. 

“Figuring out how to officially form a club involved a lot of asking teachers and other people who have made clubs and then emailing every single person on Stu Gov,” Emma said.

Philosophy Club is another new club, formed at the end of last year by Clara Dykhouse (10).

“When I first had the idea to make the club, I didn’t really know where to start,” Clara said.

Clara said she first went to an English teacher, Jonathan McFarland, to learn how to make a club, but it was her connection to Student Council that made the club-making process easier.

“I was in Student Council, which made it a lot easier. So the only people I really talked to was Mr. McFarland and Kate Waller. I sent a lot of emails with her, and we got it done pretty quick,” Clara said.

Scheduling meetings for clubs was a common issue. Emma and Joel explained how they didn’t want Jewish Club to conflict with other clubs.

“There’s so many clubs at Hickman and I don’t want to conflict with Biology Club or Speech and Debate, because I have a lot of friends in those clubs,” Emma said.

Gregg Gunn, the sponsor for Biology Club and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes talked about how conflicting schedules affect clubs.

“I have a busy schedule…because I also coach a sport, so that and the teaching schedule that I have…makes scheduling times tough…but we manage,” Gunn said.

Biology Club’s activities sometimes take them off campus, which can add a hurdle to planning a club activity.

Gunn said that sometimes Biology Club needs to get “permission to use the school bus for some of our travel and to get approval if we’re doing things that involve a third party.” 

Biology Club’s activities also sometimes involve people from outside the school coming in.

“We also get guest speakers, and we do house activities like hikes and camping trips and [the] float trip…and we sometimes do field trips to sites like MU research facilities,” Gunn said.

While the Philosophy Club and Biology Club have very different activities, they both have guest speakers.

“We’ve had a guest speaker before from the philosophy department at Mizzou. We’ve got another guest speaker coming tomorrow from the philosophy department at Mizzou,” McFarland said.

A prior guest speaker brought two clubs together. Belle Gallardo (11), a member of Amnesty International Club, joined the Philosophy Club after meeting with them and a Buddhist monk who was a guest speaker at a joint club meeting.

“I heard about [Philosophy Club] in my Amnesty [Club] meeting when we had a Buddhist monk come to the Little Theater. And it turned out that Philosophy Club was also joining us in that meeting, and I heard about it then,” Belle said.

Guest speakers will also be affected by the new security systems.

Amy Ricker, a Hickman secretary, explained that guest speakers go through the Raptor System. 

“Once they actually come to school grounds, they have to go through a background check…called the Raptor System,” Ricker said.

A guest speaker from Mizzou who runs a Philosophy Club there, Guaitiero Piccinini, who visited the Philosophy Club explained his experience with Hickman security.

“The security was slightly dubious, I would say, because there’s supposed to be a metal detector there, but they were taking it apart because it was after the end of the school day,” Guaitero said.

Piccinini has gone through the Raptor System before because he has been to Hickman before and his daughter is a student, Martine Shelley-Piccinini (9).

Martine explained how her dad ended up being a guest speaker at Philosophy Club, saying that Clara went to her dad’s philosophy club meeting and talked with him.

“[Clara] was there, and my dad talked with her, and then I talked with her,” Martine said.

Regardless of if the club has guest speakers come in or not, clubs can be enriching.

“Any kind of extracurricular stuff helps kids get connected, you know, and there’s a lot of clubs here at Hickman, and it just gives students a way to get connected to people that have similar interests,” Gunn said.