Clubs play a big part in a lot of students’ lives. They push students to be involved in the topics they love, allowing them to enjoy being at school even more. With the variety of clubs being created every school year, , many are wanting to know more about what each club has to offer.

Some clubs are created in hopes of an opportunity to inspire students to make their dream bigger. A good example of this is the Minorities in STEM club that was created last year during the height of the pandemic. President and founder of the club, Angela Morka, created the club in order to provide a safe space for minorities that wanted to take part in STEM.

“I founded this organization as a safe space primarily for women and people of color aspiring to enter the STEM field. STEM is a rewarding but taxing field of study, but adding minority status on top of all the effort required for STEM can make the field very difficult to pursue. While Lake Ridge does an amazing job with diversity and inclusion in education and while it is a majority-minority high school, the world isn’t like that,” stated Morka.

With the creation of Minorities in STEM, the students that had joined the club were opened up to many opportunities. It allowed students to become introduced into the world of STEM and push them to look into the careers they hoped to pursue. Vice President, Noah Obuya, joined the club to help him find the exact career he wanted.

“I joined minorities in STEM because I wanted to find a career that suited me. I already knew that I was going to pursue STEM, I just didn’t know what. The club was definitely beneficial to me. It solidified the career path I would choose moving into college. It offered things like scholarships and lists to programs that other clubs just don’t offer,” stated Obuya.

At Lake Ridge, there are clubs like the Asian Student Association and the Gay Straight Alliance. Clubs like those allow a place for people in those categories to have a place to go, a place to feel comfortable. Almost every person wants a place to go where they have people they share things in common with. This is why Mariam Alamiri, President and founder, created the Muslim Student Association.

“What pushed me to create the Muslim Student Association was that I felt like everyone had their own clubs and groups. I felt like it was important to us Muslims to have a place to not feel judged and just have fun with each other. I hope that we can all gain something from each other’s company,” stated Alamiri.

With the new creation of the Muslim Student Association, Muslim students are now able to spend time together. Alamiri says that she hopes to create volunteer work opportunities for the association to help out the community. Keeping that in consideration, this is what pushed Junior, Samaa Elhashash, to join the MSA.

“I joined the Muslim Student Association to meet more Muslims that are at school and make friends. What made me want to stay was the fact that we are planning on doing volunteer work together. This really does help me out with my future and I am hoping to give back to my community,” stated Elhashash.

Giving back to the community is something that a lot of people tend to have in the far back of their minds. Especially when it comes to giving back to the women and children of the world. This led to the creation of the Girl Up club which is a women’s empowerment club. Vice President, Paulina Alvarez, hopes the club creates a comforting aura for Lake Ridge.

“The overall goal of the club is to create a more comfortable and welcome atmosphere that pertains to women. Through the club, we attempt to gather donations regarding feminine hygiene products for those who don’t have easy access to them. It is important to us, to me, that we can make a difference for women in our community,” stated Alvarez.

With the variety in clubs at Lake Ridge, it gives students a range to choose from and find a place where they are the most comfortable. As the years go on, it only seems that more will come out, making Lake Ridge a welcoming place to be.