Club Activity Resurges to Pre- COVID Levels

By MICHELLE CHOO, EILENA DING, DRONA GADDAM, LEVI STOLL,  IAN KOO, LENA KOOK, ALLEGRA LAI, CRANE LEE, ANVI MURARKA, MARVIN SHIM , SIMON TAYLOR and JADE YOO

    This year marks the five year anniversary since Exeter students were forced to migrate into an online learning program, learning Harkness through online classes in their dorm or several thousand miles from New Hampshire. The discipline of collaboration, engagement, and enlightenment evaporated as Exonians locked their doors and weathered the invisible hurricane of the pandemic sweeping across the world. Thus, the participation in both the school curriculum and extracurriculars plummeted. But now, in the 2024-25 school year, Exonians seem to have fully transitioned back to the Harkness table and recovered from the plight of the virus. The paths and dining halls are bubbling with excitement, and the halls of the Academy echoes with the same cheer. The same resurgence in activity on campus soon extended into Exeter’s student led clubs. With more than 180 clubs and more than 1000 students, Club Night on Sept. xsx  was an extravaganza. Clubs ranged from competitive quiz bowls, to intense runs and relaxing tea-times, highlighting the diverse Exeter Experience.

    In many of these clubs, coheads have reported an increase in participation. Upper Abi Sagna, cohead of Academy Belly Dancing Society noted, “I think we had a lot of new kids come to our tryouts this year, which is surprising so we’re really excited for this new year. We weren’t expecting that.”

    Senior Byran Huang, cohead of Engineering Club, Computing Club, Exonian Web Board, and Science Olympiad and Bowl, commented, “Most of the clubs I am cohead in are competitive and ambitious, but the club meeting attendance has grown and remained quite high. For example, the Web Board has twice the members as last year, with many being new preps and lowers.”

    Senior Emma Sordi, cohead of Daniel Webster Debate Society, team leader of Mock Trial, club head of SM Music Lessons, and cohead of my acapella group, remarked, “We saw a large turnout at our first [DWDS] meeting last Tuesday. There were a lot of preps and a very full assembly hall… …We have about 130 members right now, and I feel that of all those people there, at least half of them are very involved. They’re the ones coming to practice and PODS. I am very happy with that level of involvement, instead of the number of people who show up to the weekly meetings.”

    Upper Dylan Richardson, cohead of French Club, Rock Climbing Club, the Exeter Political Union, and StuCo Policy, also added his observations in more non-competitive clubs, “I’ll say with Climbing Club, we really didn’t have that many people attending last year… …With the new leadership, we’re trying to bring in a lot more energy and make it a big event every week. And just with our first meeting, we are noticing a lot more engagement.”

    “I think the pandemic certainly pushed people to be more introverted and less willing to attend clubs. I remember in my first year, Club Expo was held outside and club meetings were constantly canceled due to pandemic spurs,” Huang continued, “But with the increased number of members, we can not only continue doing the fun things we’ve planned, but make them bigger and better.”

    “We have been trying to bring up that level of competition and ability since the COVID era in debate. Back then, the tournaments were basically first come, first serve, not off talent or ability… …If you look at debate in the past two years, we’ve had two world qualifiers in two years. That’s the only consecutive qualification in the school’s history really. So I think that we’re really ramping up that kind of competition,” Sordi commented, “However, I think that the increased number of members doesn’t really change my plans for the club. It excites and kind of ignites them.”

    Sagna affirmed that the spike in interest has led the co-heads to rearrange their plans for the upcoming year. “I think our main goal is to make sure all the basics are down, like focusing on getting the counts right and following the beats-- something that we usually do at the end of the term. Now we’re starting it earlier on and then teaching the formations later on in the term, kind of flipping the term upside down,” she said.

    However, some of the coheads remain cautious of the increased participation of clubs. Richardson, while enthusiastic about the high attendance rates so far, said, “We are noticing a lot of engagement, even from the new kids. But everyone wants to try something out after Club Expo. There is the line that a lot of new kids tend to hear: Join fifteen clubs, stick with three. I am proud that one of the clubs I lead is part of that fifteen, and I can only hope for it to be one of the three, too.”

    “It’s too early to tell if there’s more club participation this year than the last because we always see large numbers in the first couple meetings,” Senior Jacques Leleux, cohead of Kirtland Society, Geography Club, Archaeology Club, and History club, noted, “the big question is how many of these people we will retain. I don’t know how many new people will stay in any of these clubs, I’ll plan the best meetings regardless. We predicted larger turnout for the first couple meetings, and said turnout hasn’t thus far impacted our planning.

    The new preps and lowerclassmen applied for many clubs in order to find what activity they may be interested in. One such prep, Maryn Bowman, stated, “Clubs are a really good way to build community and to make friends as well as to just have a break from academics… …I ended up signing up for 34 clubs, but will probably only commit to 11.”

    Others echo the same opinion. Prep Sophia Chen commented, “I signed up for 32 clubs, but I got rid of most of them. So right now, I have around sixteen. I’m probably gonna only commit to three or four max because my schedule’s pretty tight and I don’t want to stress myself out.” However, she continues that “clubs shape the atmosphere where people follow what they want to do, like their passions or hobbies. It brings a lot more life and character to Exeter and its community.”

    “I signed up for about 15 clubs, but I’m really just trying to see how the term goes and then I’m going to see if it’s too much of a commitment.” prep Annika Nystedt said.

    Richardson expressed his enthusiasm for introducing and inviting new students to a community he’s part of as well, stating, “It’s a good time having these new kids coming in because it’s always nice being able to help other people get into this activity or organization that you’re a part of. I really enjoy being a part of the leadership for all my clubs, and it’s a great thing when these kids come in to try out something new.”