New clubs have sprouted on the Circle this fall. They introduced themselves to the community at their Fall Jam tables. If students still do not know much about the new faces among the community’s clubs, here is a good chance to take a closer look.

Coding Club

Groton Coding Club, also known as GCC, was founded this September by Ross Ewald’16, Abby Kong’17, Cherian Yit’17 and Roan Guinan’17. Cherian, who is always fond of coding, had the idea of starting a coding club this summer and gained support from Roan, who is equally interested in this subject. When school started, they came across Abby and Ross, both of whom attended a nationwide coding program called Girls Who Code and shared the idea of starting a coding club on campus.

“We all believed that coding is an important skill that will become increasingly important in the coming years,” says Ross, “and we thought everyone should have the chance to gain a general exposure to computer science.” After talking to Ms. Kelly, the four decided to combine their plans and founded the club.

At their meetings, the heads introduce to club members different coding languages and allow them to freely experiment with those languages. When asked about the procedure of meetings, Cherian explains, “We teach the basics, and let the members play around with their own programs.” The meetings turned out to be even better than what the heads imagined. “I was so surprised when so many people showed up on the first meeting that we didn’t have enough chairs.” says Abby. “And it was very rewarding to see people with all programming backgrounds solve problems together.” Coding Club, she explains, may bring to the community fresh perceptions: “We’re already known for humanities, and we hope Coding Club can introduce more STEM concepts.” Ross adds that she was thrilled to see younger students who want to learn about the field. “I think the importance and awareness of computer science are increasing,” she said.

By the end of Fall Term, Coding Club will have finished a large gaming project. Although this project will probably not be released to the entire school, they will release their winter project—a live website—to the Groton Community. “We are hoping to generate more interest and awareness.” says Ross.

Engineering Society

Coding Club is not the only club trying to enhance STEM aspects of the Groton life. Groton Engineering Society, founded by Albert Zhu’16 and sponsored by Mr. Hall, is a club focusing on the practical uses of math and science. Albert, who co-runs the club with Maddy Forbess’16 and Matt Winter ’16, describes the club as one that takes engineering outside of the classroom and encourages community-oriented projects. “Mr. Hall and the heads take the projects and inform the rest of the club about them. Then, we reevaluate the ideas and make a concrete plan.” says Albert, “We hope to fully utilize the new space in the Schoolhouse.”

Right now, the Engineering Society is making a project concerning the movable white boards in the new part of the Schoolhouse: designing a stop-and-go mechanism for the boards as well as building marker storages attached to them.

Furthermore, the members are working on projects from the Gibbet Hill/Groton School farm, including a bee house and dibbler and worm compost. “The club is in essence project-driven,” says Albert, “we do what this school and community needs.”

The Engineering Society, Albert adds, is trying to reach a gender balance. “The gender balance of the first meeting was good, but the second one was almost an all-boys’ meeting. We truly encourage more girls to come explore engineering.”

UNICEF

UNICEF stands for the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. The club, co-founded by Sangah Lee’18, Yan Davidoff’18, Millie Kim’17 and Carly Bowman’17, helps to promote the rights and wellbeing of children around the world. “We aspire to help children not as privileged as the students here at Groton as well as to advocate for measures that give children the best start in life.” says Sangah. The club activities focus on spreading awareness about and helping disadvantaged children, including those who live in unstable environments or have disabilities. Right now, the club is targeting the ongoing Syrian crisis and young refugees.

The club plans on raising funds by holding bake sales throughout the year. It will also raise funds for UNICEF in events such as Trick-or-Treat, in which it cooperates with local communities with help from day students. This club has reached out to representatives of the New England region UNICEF, who sent merchandises that club members can give out during Parent’s Weekend. “We want to engage the entire student body in this cause, rather than limiting it to only UNICEF club members.” says Millie. UNICEF is hoping to achieve this goal through projects such as tap-water program, an app students can put on their phones which raises funds automatically when users stay away from their phones. “We hope to have dorm competitions on this.” says Millie, “Cui servare est regnare—by this means, Groton students will be able to make changes to the world by doing little things in life.”

Model UN/Congress

MUN, which stands for Model United Nations, is a club in which students engage in authentic simulations of the United Nations. During the meetings, students learn about the UN system and the skills of debate and negotiation, prepare solutions to current problems, and solve conflicts using various strategies. The group engages in discussions in which they learn about how the world works by researching current events that are relevant to the issue.

This year, MUN is having joined meetings with Model Congress, also known as MoCo, a club that practices simulations of the United States Congress. “MoCo is a club that focuses on debating and writing skills.” says Macy Lipkin’18, founder of MoCo. She now co-runs the MUN-MoCo Clubs with William Zhang’16, Drew Bassilakis’16, Yanni Cho’16 and Albert Zhu’16. “The club experience has really expanded my knowledge of current events and introduced me to new friends,” said Macy.

The club plans to send teams to the Yale Model UN Conference next January and the Harvard Model Congress next January. By sending representatives to such events, MUN/ MoCo Club aspires to link Groton students to important political issues of “the greater world.”