Learning Service during Club time in Upper School
Upper School clubs at Overlake serve several purposes, some more obvious than others. Yes, they are a time for students to get together outside of academic classes and collaborate on a shared interest, but they are also a wonderful opportunity for students to learn leadership skills. “Student-led clubs provide students opportunities for leadership development that is collaborative and responsive,” explains Laura Brown, Assistant Director of Experiential Education. “At the beginning of the school year, the student club leaders set goals for their club, and then have opportunities to reflect on their leadership experience during various meetings throughout the school year.”
Sophomores Julinna W., Zainab P., and Tarini R. joined Outreach Club in ninth grade. After participating in the club during their first year, they were able to come back the next year as club co-leaders. “It’s a service-oriented club that works on serving the local community, especially the unhoused communities around us, “explains Julinna. “We try and run programs on a smaller scale, but have tangible items, like hygiene kits.”
Outreach Club focuses on engaging the student body to assist in various projects to help Overlake’s neighboring communities. This school year they held a candy drive, a sock drive, winter bake sale/hygiene drive, and book drive. “Kids aren’t just going to start showing up and bring stuff from their homes, so we wanted to provide drives that students will have access to and be able to bring items to school that we can donate,” explains Zainab.
By engaging the wider school community in such donation drives, it not only provides more awareness of the needs in our greater community, but also makes the outcome of the drives more satisfying. “This makes doing service at school easier, since a lot of times you have to sign up and go out of your way to do service,” says Tarini.
“Knowing that our hygiene kits impacted 100 people who are unhoused, that’s a big goal for our club,” shares Tarini. The students in Outreach club say the goodwill they provide boomerangs back to them too. “You feel very accomplished, especially after dropping stuff off to the origination and they thank you. It feels really nice,” beams Julinna.
Beyond Outreach club, Overlake has a wide variety of clubs that all seek to harness a student’s curiosity and passion. “Student-led clubs give students opportunities to pursue a personal passion, a subject not available for exploration through academic classes, and/or delve more deeply into a specific field of interest,” says Brown. “I think the most unique clubs we currently offer are Automotive Engineering Club and Mystery Investigations Club.
Students will have an opportunity at the beginning of the school year to attend the club fair where clubs are announced with brief descriptions for each. Here’s a listing of our current Upper School clubs.