For several years, North Gwinnett High School (NGHS) has been home to athletic, academic and artistic students alike. Students spend four years learning not only what is required to get them into a great college, but rather, what they want to be as an adult. Clubs and activities at North Gwinnett High School have always played a key part in developing new interests in a student and enhancing individual skills. In recent years, they have grown and developed into a large cluster of diversity. An interview of selected students who have started new clubs within the last year showed that they gained experience in areas of leadership, team building, and decision making. For students who are part of one or more of these clubs and activities, they overcome the fear of change and become open to trying new things.
The clubs range from education-related DECA (Distributive Education Club of America), to foreign language clubs for Spanish, French, German, and Latin. Clubs such as AASA (Asian American Student Association), ISA (International Student Association), and ELF (English Language Friends), promote unity among students from different ethnicities and backgrounds, encouraging students to learn more about other cultures and traditions. Meanwhile, GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) and Girl Up focus on the concept of empowerment for a specific group of students. There are even the unique athletic clubs such as the NGHS Air Rifle Team, the Equestrian Team, and the Fencing Team, all of which compete at various different competitions to represent the school. For the arts, NGHS Players continues to put on productions like “Cinderella,” “The Crucible,” and “Alice in Wonderland,” to encourage students to explore their interests in theatre production.
These are only a few of the several clubs available to students at North Gwinnett High School. However, this wide variety was not always present. Over the last 20-25 years, students have been responsible for taking on leadership roles and forming the many clubs that are present to this day. Mrs. Alicia Couch Payne, an alumna of North Gwinnett High School and current editor of The North Gwinnett Voice, states that there were not nearly as many options available for clubs and activities during her time as a student. Those that were available, were Key Club, Jr. Civitan, and National Honors Society (NHS). Current students at the high school believe this was due to the concept of clubs being fairly new during that time and that they were just a group of ideas in the making. They feel that only the academic clubs, like those present during Mrs. Payne’s high school years, were started by the school as an initiative to get students to become more involved and create their own clubs.
North Gwinnett High School is ranked as the number two high school in Gwinnett County and student life is one of the primary reasons for it. With all of the clubs and activities run by the students of NGHS, the diversity and unification within the school will surely keep it one of the best schools for many years to come.
— By Anoshka Ramkumar, North Gwinnett High School Student Intern
