What I Learned from Founding a Club in High School

For me, founding a club in high school is one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences that I can remember. I know a lot of students think about founding a club at some point in their high school journey. I thought it would be helpful for me to talk about my experience, what I learned, and what I wish I knew in hopes of encouraging others to take the leap as I had once done.

Many students often consider founding a club as they think about including their extracurriculars in their college applications. As a result, it is often easy to fall into the trap of trying to join or create a club that is presumably “good” for college admissions or for summer programs.

Do your best to resist such pressure, as it is important to do something that you are passionate about so that you can do your best. The success of the club will be tied closely to how much time and effort you put in, so might as well choose something that you are actually interested in.

For me, as I searched for inspirations for a club idea, I became more introspective about what kind of organization would make me happy and what kind of people I wanted to surround myself with. After some thinking, I recognized that I always enjoyed teaching — from peer tutoring to volunteering as a student docent in the local history museum.

I enjoyed elements of education and mentorship. In addition, the music program was an important part of my high school experience, as I was both an avid participant in Symphonic Wind Ensemble and the Marching Band.

A club idea naturally blossomed from these two interests — a music education mentorship program for high school students.

An idea is as great but then comes the hard part — the actual work of creating the club and making it successful. I found that leveraging strengths and personal relationships are the key ingredients that are necessary to create a successful club in high school.

As a club founder, the ability to recognize and capitalize on your unique strengths is vital; if you are good at speaking you should lead meetings, if you are better at planning you should organize meeting agendas and ensure milestones are met. After all, every person has unique strengths that they can bring to the table. It just takes some time and introspection to find out what that is.

We all have weaknesses, but where we lack, personal relationships can fill in. Whether it is a teacher supporting your club or a friend who can provide different skills and perspectives, you need good people around you for the club to be successful.

For the music mentorship program that I founded, I helped lead the operations as I thought of myself as a good planner and organizer. However, I also recognized that I did not have as wide of a reach in the music community, such as the orchestra. I reached out to a good friend who was in the orchestra and he joined as a co-founder of the club. He took charge of the operations related to the orchestra, helping to bring orchestra members as mentors and mentees into the program. Meanwhile, I focused on managing operations within the band and developing the roadmap of the program — from volunteer hours for mentors to incentives for students to join the mentorship program.

Overall, creating your own club and watching it grow can provide various lessons to help you in college and beyond. From learning how to be an effective leader to working toward making a positive change in your community, founding a club is much more than just checking off a box on your college application list. If you feel ready and passionate about an idea, take that leap of faith and create their own club.

Whether it’s a mentorship club, a charitable pursuit, or an artistic endeavor, choose to create something that will be an authentic expression of who you are. It might just be one of the most fulfilling experiences of your high school journey.

 — Mentor Daniel

Does this article resonate with you? You or a high school student you know could get mentorship from the author of this article or another one of our mentors, each of whom is a graduate of an Ivy League, Stanford, or MIT.

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