The Marine Biology Club held their first meeting of the year on Tuesday, Sept. 11th, explaining plans for the new year and welcoming new members.

During seminar, club leaders introduced themselves to new members and explained the goals of the group. According to junior club president Eva Burke, the way the club operates makes it unique and separates it from other academic clubs at Mill Valley.

“There aren’t a lot of specific science clubs in this school, and the ones that are academic are based on competition.” Burke said. “We’re more of a place to go for people to just hang out and learn about things in a non-competitive environment.”

One of the club’s main drawing points is how its activities stand apart from other clubs. Freshman Soledad Stevanov found herself drawn to some of the ideas for things to do brought up in the meeting.

“The creek cleaning seemed cool, and so did just some of the field trips in general.” said Stevanov.

Field trips aren’t all the club is planning. Burke looks forward to not only bringing in professional marine biologists to speak on their experience working in the field, but different types of scientists as well.

“Last year we had brought in a Marine Biologist speaker [who] had gone to Antarctica, and she talked about her time and experiences there.” Burke said. “We were thinking about doing that with other sciences.”

Club sponsor and science teacher Julie Roberts acknowledges the amount of effort students have to put into the club to keep things running smoothly.

“It’s kind of what they want to make of it. It’s kind of hard to talk a lot about it, because it’s up to them to make it into something.” Roberts said.

With the new year of the club having started, Roberts is optimistic about what new leadership has to bring.

“I’m excited.” Roberts said. “I hope that they do a lot with it this year, and that they get involved and have fun with it.”