At Northern Valley Demarest, student-run clubs play a central role in school life, offering opportunities for students to explore interests beyond the classroom. Preparing for club meetings and activities often involves a great deal of behind-the-scenes work, with student leaders spending time organizing details, communicating with fellow officers, and balancing their schedules to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Across different clubs with different focuses, leaders described similar responsibilities with running clubs. Justin Song, a senior and president of The Runes literary magazine, said he focuses on organizing meetings and supporting fellow writers. The Runes is a student run magazine that provides club members with opportunities to submit, edit, and publish creative writing.
“I’m mainly in charge of organizing meetings and activities for the club to do as well as helping club members with improving their submissions to the literary magazine,” Song said.
In the National Space Society (NSS), a competition-focused club founded this school year by three juniors, club obligations for both members and officers mainly center around competition deadlines and long-term projects about space research and design. Founder and co-president Ceylin Aktan explains that she and the other leaders break large projects into manageable stages to help keep members on track.
“I work to ensure that tasks are divided into stages and club meetings are organized consistently to establish team collaboration,” Aktan said. “I assign weekly work to each competitor in order to keep track of their work and address the areas that could be strengthened.”
Leaders of culture and language clubs have similar tasks. The president of the Chinese Club said her responsibilities include coordinating events and running club meetings. This club focuses on sharing Chinese language and culture through activities and events.
“I plan and organize events, delegate responsibilities, and lead officer meetings,” she said.
Many students are motivated to become club leaders because they care deeply about what their club focuses on and want to make a difference in a community they value. Song said he is motivated by his passion for literature and his desire to help create a space where students can share and develop their writing.
“I’m personally a huge fan of reading and a lover of literature, and while our club is considered a writing club, my job is largely to read!” Song said. “There are very few positions in this school where I can use my reading skills to make an impact.”
Aktan said her motivation to found NSS came from recognizing a gap in the school’s range of extracurricular choices.
“After my family moved to the U.S. and I realized that our school lacked a club dedicated to space research, I decided to undertake the duty to found my own club with the pursuit of making space research accessible to everyone and sharing my prior knowledge with others to compete in space settlement design contests,” Aktan explained.
Similarly, the Chinese Club president said she was motivated to become a club leader because of her Chinese cultural background and wanting to share it with others
“I come from a Chinese heritage and I wanted to share that culture with NVD,” she said
Becoming a club leader has also given students a new perspective on responsibility and teamwork. For Song, this is reflected in learning how much more responsibility he has as a leader.
“I think it’s definitely the fact that I have to think a lot more about others and the club as a whole,” Song said. “Activities I’ve planned, submissions that need to get reviewed and then organized, and reaching out to art teachers for their art all have to be handled by us so the members can simply focus on their writing.”
To Aktan, becoming a club leader allowed her to grow from simply following instructions to now providing guidance for others.
“Once I became the leader of my own club, I began to use innovative methods and schedules, all of which I would not have done if it were not for my dedication” Aktan said.
For students interested in starting or leading a club, the club leaders gave advice and suggestions on where to take the first step. Song encouraged students not to let fear hold them back.
“If you have an idea for a club but are too afraid to start, I’d encourage you to face it,” Song said. “Find something you’re passionate about and fill that gap.”
The Chinese Club president echoed that message.
“Just start the club!” she said. “It may seem scary at first, but every club leader has learned from numerous failures to become the leader they are now.”
