Hello from long ago & HS Activity Question

[lovin2shop]

Hello all,
Well, I guess life became a whirlwind, and I haven't checked in here in a really long time! So great to see so many long timers still on here, from infants to young adults already. I have one son in college at Duke and one rising HS Freshman. All is well, just trying to soak in all of the last school & athletic events for my younger son, and survived the college application process and first year college for my older one.

Of course whenever I have a question about anything, I always wonder what would the BBB Moms say! So my rising Freshman is going to a small High School that doesn't offer many clubs outside of sports. He does play sports, but I've also noticed that he has a big interest in current events, politics, news, government etc. His school does not have any club that addressed this, so I was wondering if there were any suggestions for activities or camps that your HS students may have participated in outside of school? For him to be interested, it would need to be fun and engaging, not just an activity to list on applications if that makes sense. Open to summer classes/camps this summer or next, and also any activities during the school year. Any suggestions appreciated, and now I'm off to get caught up on everything that I've missed here!

[SnuggleBuggles]

This would be the perfect opportunity to create a club at school! I bet there are other students looking for something (maybe a model UN? mock trial? I'm sure there are lots of other ideas) and a teacher willing to be the academic advisor. I would look at clubs offered at neighboring schools and get some ideas and proceed from there.
Summer clubs and classes- check museums and libraries to start.

[lovin2shop]

Great idea, I'll have to see if he would be up for starting a new club. He is new to the school, so doesn't know any students yet, but maybe later once he gets adjusted.

[essnce629]

Volunteer for someone running for a local election?

My DS1's middle school science teacher is currently running for congress and reached out to all her past students to see if they would like to volunteer for her campaign. She posts on social media all the time and I see lots of teens always volunteering with her at different local events and projects.

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[doberbrat]

theater? Orchestra/band? Around here the libraries also have programs/clubs.

[wendibird22]

Nice to see you!!!

Summer might be a great time to volunteer with local or county government, local elections office, candidates running for office. If he has a political affiliation (or leaning) he could reach out to the local org (county democrats or county republicans for example) and see if they need volunteers. Or see if your local town/city offices would let him do a variety of shadowing. I find that local government is very interesting and there's so much more to local government than state/national. Just shadowing things like public works, code enforcement, county/town clerk, town/county justice, etc.

[smilequeen]

Starting something at school is a great idea. Once he’s there, if he has a guidance counselor, have him talk to him/her about this too. They often know what kids are into what activities, especially at a smaller school. My middle son is such an introvert, but he loves fencing and anime and I’m really encouraging him to seek out some kids to start a club for either at school (they have a lot of clubs and sports but not those things). My oldest is considering starting a ski club with a few other guys because they went to our local ski hill together whenever they could this winter so they might as well make it a school thing

My middle does do his things outside of school, belongs to a local fencing club for competitions. But it’s great to have something at school to connect IMO (which he hasn’t been doing this year as a freshman unfortunately).

There may also be camps or volunteer opportunities over the summer, so I’d definitely look into that.