At Benilde-St. Margaret’s, there is a wide variety of different clubs for students to join. However, if a student is interested in a club that does not exist, they can create it themselves. Although this may seem like a straight-forward process, many students believed this not to be the case, due to a common theme of lacking student interest.
Last year, senior Matthew Litchy, and a few other seniors, attempted to start a lifting club at BSM. Unfortunately, the plans to create the club fell through for a number of reasons. Litchy says the main reason the club was not finalized was a lack of interest from the student body. According to Litchy, it is difficult to find students who have the same interests. “I doubt that nobody at BSM is interested in starting a lifting club, it’s just hard to find other people who have the same interests if you don’t already know them,” Litchy said.
I doubt that nobody at BSM is interested in starting a lifting club, it’s just hard to find other people who have the same interests if you don’t already know them
— Matthew Litchy
As it currently stands, when new clubs are formed, information about the club is often sent out to the BSM student body via email. Litchy pointed out that this does not always help gain traction for the club. “I feel like not many people really read those emails so it’s hard to get people interested and involved if that’s how you have to do it,” Litchy said.
The BSM golf club, instituted last year, is a recent example of a club that was successfully created and had positive interest. Senior Sam Broglio describes the idea behind the golf club and how it started. “I tried out for the golf team and didn’t make it, so I was looking for a way to be able to play golf with other BSM students outside of the team, so that’s where the idea started,” Broglio said.
Broglio had joined the golf club after being invited by another student. Golf club is also a varsity sport at BSM. “I’d absolutely love to see more clubs at BSM that have a varsity sport as well. I think that a great way for people who want to play a sport but not commit to it at a varsity level is to join a club, especially for sports like hockey, soccer, or football, where it’s really hard to play at the varsity level,” Broglio said.
Creating a club at BSM can be easy for students if they know who to talk to and what to listen for, but it is often hard to find those people. Golf club is an example of BSM students who knew who to talk to and recruit for the club to be started. In order to help gain more traction, Litchy suggests that there be a BSM Club website for students to recruit other students to their clubs, or where students with a common idea for a club can connect to get the ball rolling.