From guest speakers to service projects, new clubs – the Common Ground and the Psychology Club – have already begun meeting, each welcoming students to join.

Common Ground was started by sophomore Victoria Guess who wanted to create a place at school where she could celebrate her Catholic faith.

“I haven’t found an environment where my faith has been valued and I’ve never found that anywhere here, so I wanted to create a space for [students] to come together and pray in the morning,” Guess said.

Additionally, Guess felt like there were others who shared her views, which helped create and make goals for the club.

“I think talking to people and seeing if people were interested was a big thing when I created the club,” Guess said. “Eventually, I would like to have guest speakers come so students can listen to them.”

The Common Ground holds meetings before school once a month in GL-101. Guess hopes that the club can be a relaxing space before a long day at school.

“I hope to just create a community where kids feel welcome and feel like peace in the morning, before having to do a whole school day,” Guess said. “Usually we’ll pray the Rosary, have some donuts, have a good morning and then sometimes we’ll talk about community service.”

The Psychology Club was started by seniors Emma Ronning, Maggie Wieland and Celeste White, who hoped to learn more about psychology beyond what the school offered.

“I took AP Psychology last year and I kind of always had an interest in psychology, and after learning more about it in school, it kind of just fed my interest more,” Ronning said. “We all just wanted to explore more outside of class.”

The Psychology Club holds meetings after school every other Tuesday in B-234. Each meeting is unique, according to Ronning.

“We’ve kind of done a different thing every meeting,” Ronning said. “So at our next meeting, we’re gonna do a little survey of the school, trying to combine cognitive psychology and motivation. Then we are also going to have guest speakers talk about careers in psychology.”

Even though they just began, the club has goals for the future.

“We wanted to do some sort of mental health oriented service project with JagPRIDE,” Ronning said. “We also wanted to do something like fundraising for Zero Reasons Why or the Trevor Project.”

Along with the Common Ground and the Psychology Club, other new clubs, the Multicultural Club and the French Club are working to begin meeting as well.