Student Clubs and Organizations

Bellarmine Ceramics Club
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Mission Statement: The Bellarmine Ceramics Club aims to create a collaborative and inclusive space where all members can experience the joy of creating art.

Club Description: The Bellarmine Ceramics Club will focus on encouraging members to work together to improve their artistic abilities. This means that students with more experience will help newer members create the pieces they aspire to. The Ceramics Club will also be a refreshing place that provides members with a change of pace from regular classes by keeping meetings light-hearted and enjoyable.

Bellarmine Woodshop Club
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Mission Statement: We want to allow students to have a place where they can gain valuable woodworking skills and experience through personal projects to creatively express themselves.

Club Description: The focus of this club will be to train students on how to use tools in the woodshop and how to apply those skills to build individual or group projects while fostering a community of teamwork and collaboration.

Film Club
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Mission Statement: The Film Club hopes to bring together a community of film lovers to watch, analyze, and discuss movies.

Club Description: The Film Club will focus on watching and analyzing a variety of films, which will be decided on democratically through a vote. During meetings, we’ll watch movies together and engage in discussions after to explore themes, cinematography, and the director's vision. We hope to create a welcoming community where members can share their love for film, learn from each other, and appreciate movies in an enjoyable environment.

Songwriting Club
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Mission Statement: The songwriting club aims to unite aspiring songwriters to collaborate and bounce ideas off each other.

Club Description: At songwriting club meetings, members will be able to share their songs with the club and receive feedback and suggestions. Members can share their knowledge with each other and help each other improve their artistry.

The Fortissibros
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Mission Statement: We bring our voices together to make harmonies, have fun, and share the joy of singing with our school and community.

Club Description: The focus of our club is in developing a repertoire of songs, all sung without any instrumental accompaniment, that we can master and have fun singing. Goals of meetings are to take what we have individually practiced outside of meetings and put it all together to develop a song. We hope to build a community that weakens the stigma behind men's singing that, however cliché, contributes to making singing more "cool!"

Bellarmine Entrepreneurship Club
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Mission Statement: The Bellarmine Entrepreneurship Club aims to bring together like-minded individuals interested in the fields of Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Business, fostering a community of innovation and collective growth.

Club Description: We will be participating in a variety of competitions, activities, and events throughout the year. Firstly, we will be going to three pitch competitions after teaching all the club members how to formulate good pitches / ideas: the Blue Ocean Pitch Competition, the Diamond Challenge, and the Conrad Challenge. These are good experiences for people who want to learn more about businesses and learn how to convince people to invest in / be a part of their projects. We will also be working with Santa Clara University and representing the Bellarmine Entrepreneurship Club as the only high schoolers attending their monthly cafes, teaching our members about networking and introducing them to various successful people in the industry. Moreover, we will host guest speakers either online or in-person at Bellarmine itself, with various successful entrepreneurs, those in the investment banking industry, and more. Here’s a bit about accomplishments from our club last year:

• Led 83+ members through the essentials of entrepreneurship. Workshops on design thinking, business models, problem/solution ideation, etc.
• 2nd and 4th place at 2024 Santa Clara University Startup Business Pitch Competition.
• 3 semifinalists in 2024 Diamond Challenge Pitch Competition.
• Speaker Series: Yash Gaur (SCU Leavey School of Business), Will Rush (CEO/Co-Founder of Jetson), Jonathan Ho + Jackson Foster (Co-Founders, Edily Learning).
• Hosted 2024 Jetson Business Pitch Competition.
• 2024 Bellarmine Justice Summit: A Spotlight on Social Entrepreneurship. 60+ attendees

Economics Club
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Mission Statement: Educate bells in economic literature, participate in economics competition, inspiring a new generation of competitive leaders.

Club Description: Studying economics, preparing for competitions, discussing economic events and principles. Hope to build a community that helps each other and is interested in economics and expanding its influence at Bellarmine.

Young Investors Society (YIS)
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Mission Statement: Our mission is to elevate investment education for students by cultivating a vibrant, competitive community focused on sharpening investment skills through rigorous national competitions.

Club Description: The Young Investor's Society Club is focused on fostering financial literacy and investing skills among students through an engaging, hands-on competition. The club revolves around the ""Young Investors Society"" (YIS) program, which offers a semester-long investing competition that allows students to learn by doing. Through this program, students have the opportunity to explore what strategies work and which do not in a real-world context. By earning virtual money through courses offered on the YIS website, students can apply for various certificates and awards, including the prestigious CYIS distinction, which is earned by meeting specific criteria. Our club meetings are designed to reinforce learning and facilitate practical experience. Each week, we will briefly review key lessons assigned for completion and then dive deeper into discussions about promising stocks and potential investment opportunities. Members will be grouped into cohorts to collaboratively analyze stock trends, create presentations, and discuss investment strategies. This collaborative approach ensures that everyone contributes their insights and skills, helping to shortlist stocks for potential investment in their individual accounts. These meetings are not only about learning and investing but also about building a strong community. By working together, sharing knowledge, and leveraging each member's unique abilities, we create an environment where everyone can shine and grow as a young investor.

Anime Club
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Mission Statement: In the Bellarmine Anime Club, our goal is to bring together and create a community that welcomes all otakus at Bell who have faced ridicule for their passion.

Club Description: Our anime club will be a dedicated space for fans of anime to connect, discuss their favorite series, and share their passion for Japanese animation. We aim to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing their interests in anime. During meetings we hope to discuss anime and rate them and just make it a place for people with common interests in anime to hang out and maybe even watch something. Thus, we hope to build a community that is supportive and vibrant, where members can connect with others sharing their passions and ideas.

Baking Club
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Mission Statement: The Bellarmine Baking Club aims to foster community building and cultural exchange by bringing together students to share, enjoy, and learn from diverse baked goods, while also contributing to charitable causes through bake sales.

Club Description: Our goal for the Bellarmine Baking Club is to host meetings every two weeks. During these meetings, the two club leaders and student members will bring baked goods from home to share with the club. The goal is to promote cultural exchange through food. While we share food, we will also plan the unique aspect of our club, bake sales. Our aim is to host 4 bake sales throughout the year, one each quarter. For this reason, meetings will be mostly dedicated to the logistics of planning these events. All baking will be done at home and the proceeds of the bake sales will go to a charitable cause. Beyond forming a community around the shared love of baking, we hope to instill a sense of social responsibility and work ethic through these bake sales.

Bellarmine Chess Club
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Mission Statement: The Bellarmine Chess Club aims to foster a supportive and inclusive community where students of all skill levels engage in strategic thinking, develop mental acuity, and form connections through friendly competition.

Club Description: This year, Bellarmine Chess Club has two primary goals: to create opportunities for members to enhance their skills and to create a competitive team for interschool and scholastic events. We aim to teach new and returning members of all skill levels through analysis of famous games, theme-based lessons (opening, middlegame, endgame), puzzle competitions, and more. Through practice games arenas, we also hope to build and identify strong players to compete on our high school team, bringing a competitive roster to tournaments including the State Championship.

Bellarmine College Preparatory Fishing Club
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Mission Statement: The mission of the club is to teach new anglers about the sport of fishing and continue to build the skills of avid fishermen.

Club Description: Meetings will have PowerPoints on different topics such as, techniques, lures, spots, and more.

Bellarmine E-bike Club
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Mission Statement: At Bellarmines E-bike Club, we strive to teach individuals how to operate electricity-driven vehicles to promote the usage of electric personal vehicles instead of the traditional gas-powered vehicles for daily tasks.

Club Description: We will teach about e-bike safety on the road as well as educate individuals about e-bike laws in California. At Bellarmine's e-bike club, we will strive to produce individuals who embody a true bell when they use electric vehicles or PEVs (Personal Electric Vehicles) to ride to school and/or in general. We want to teach individuals how to be safe when operating their e-bikes, and host ride-outs with bikes and e-bikes. We want to build a community of bikers that ride safely and smartly and are educated about their local laws.

Bellarmine FGC

Mission Statement: We wish to create a community in which the student's passion and competitiveness can be used further connect them to one another through shared experiences and thrills.

Club Description: The focus of the club will be to create an environment in which students can let out their competitive nature, but in a way that will bring the rest of the community together. This should be a club in which everyone, from an incoming freshman, to someone new to the genre, or an experienced player, can have something enjoyable to do during their CT, hopefully discover a new hobby, and interact with members of the Bellarmine community they may not have met otherwise.

Bellarmine Railroad Club
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Mission Statement: The Bellarmine Railroad Club seeks to create a community of Model Railroaders, Railfans and Train Enthusiasts that can meet to discuss trains, railroad news and share good railfanning locations with each other.

Club Description: During our club meetings we talk about what has been happening in the railroading community (ex. Big Boy on tour, museums), changes to railroads (ex. CP/KCS merger, Caltrain electrification), share photos, and videos of trains they have seen in the time in between meetings, and of course, watch trains (Caltrain, ACE, Union Pacific, Amtrak and Amtrak California).

Bellarmine Scouting Mentorship Community
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Mission Statement: To promote, advance, and establish scouting among the Bellarmine community, effectively integrating leadership skills and lifelong learning into our peers.

Club Description: Our club will primarily focus on teaching our members the essentials of joining scouting, background information on scouting, requirements for merit badges, the best ways to rank up, and host questioning periods for anything they want to learn about. The meetings will be mostly member-led (except for the first few introductory meetings) and they can vote on the topics to cover in the future, and the final decided schedule will be sent out in an email chain ahead of time so members can choose if they would like to attend meetings on certain topics or not. In the meetings, we hope to teach our members the basic skills and requirements of the selected subject, so they can demonstrate it to their own troop leaders and complete the requirement or have an understanding of that topic. On a fundamental level, we want to push our members to join scouting, embark on many outdoor adventures, and make an impact on their community through ranking up and getting merit badges. We want to foster a community where new scouts can support each other while veterans can provide them with advice on moving forward. This will build up a strong foundation of a range of skills and leadership, which they can apply to their everyday lives.

Car Club
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Mission Statement: Our mission is to deliver car news; updates; and information about the car world, offer fun and engaging activities related to cars that other car enthusiasts at Bellarmine can enjoy and connect with the existing car community in the Bay Area.

Club Description: We aim to give students a better understanding of cars and teach them about car culture, the car community, and any relevant news regarding the car world they might need more time to learn about outside of school. We also help plan events and give invitations to many other events so that every club member gets the opportunity to experience the Bay Area car culture in person.

Cooking Club
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Mission Statement: Cooking Club is an inclusive community that teaches hungry Bells of all skill levels how to cook safely and deliciously.

Club Description: The cooking club plans to teach members how to create various dishes for which the members vote. Mr. Lum, our moderator, will be the primary leader of cooking events and will be creating recipes and instructing students during the meeting. During organizational meetings, I will be holding voting to see which dishes the club will create, and send messages to members on the Teams to remind them about events. I want to build a community where people who have never cooked a dish in their lives feel comfortable trying a new skill and can have fun doing it.

Magic: The Gathering Club
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Mission Statement: I hope to maintain a friendly community where people who enjoy Magic: The Gathering can talk to each other and play with each other.

Club Description: Our focus will be playing the card game Magic: The Gathering during our club meetings, and I hope to be able to create a space where people with similar interest in the game can come together in a friendly community to meet new people and play together.

Minecraft Club
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Mission Statement: To connect people and to create long-lasting friendships through the world of Minecraft.

Club Description: Our focus will be to create a safe space for people to express themselves through Minecraft and find like-minded individuals. Essentially our goal is to bridge the social gap between Minecraft and reality, allowing people to meet each other in-game and become friends outside of it. During meetings we will try to incorporate in-game events that allow players to compete with each other, further building a connection with each other that hopefully moves outside of the game. We want to create a positive community and environment that has respect and care for each other.

Pokémon Club
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Mission Statement: We want to create a community of passionate Pokémon players within Bellarmine.

Club Description: Our club's focus is hosting various Pokémon events and tournaments during our CT hours. We hope to foster a community of people who can connect over their shared love of Pokémon.

Poker Club
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Mission Statement: The poker club is dedicated to fostering a healthy and fun environment for students to learn about the strategies, fundamentals, and complexities of playing Poker.

Club Description: The meetings will occur every Thursday and it invites all students who are part of the Bellarmine community to join The Poker Club. The Poker Club hopes to foster a community of kindness, compassion, open-mindedness, and curiosity. Through the program, students will have the ability to collaboratively engage with one another and teach each other the strategies and nuances that are part of playing poker. Not only is poker a fun activity, but it fosters foundational life skills that students can use in their day-to-day lives. These include risk management, long-term strategizing, mathematical analysis, fast thinking skills, and social interaction. Some future goals of the club include gaining an extensive list of active members, having meetings with experienced poker players, out reaching to other schools for tournaments, or holding poker tournaments on Bellarmine’s campus. 

Rocket League Club
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Mission Statement: The Rocket League's focus is to build a community bond of teamwork and friendship between Rocket League club members.

Club Description: The Rocket League's focus is to build a community bond of Rocket League players and enthusiasts. During meetings, we hope to solidify and strengthen the bond of teamwork by playing Rocket League and doing other fun activities.

Scale Model Building Club
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Mission Statement: To bring students together through collaborative projects in constructing Scale Models I'm hoping that my club will be similar to the same scale model club that I entered as a freshman.

Club Description: A meeting place for students experienced or inexperienced to build scale models and work with others. I hope to foster a community that allows for both collaboration as well as creativity.

Villainous Club
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Mission Statement: In the Villainous club, members hang out and play the board game Disney Villainous.

Club Description: I hope to create an open environment where members can just have a good time, hanging out and playing the Villainous Board game. The focus of the club is simply to have fun. No prior experience in the game is needed. You can still come to meetings where you can learn how to play or just spectate if that is what you want.

Board Games Club
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Mission Statement: We want to introduce, share, and play a variety of board games while creating a relaxed environment for students to have fun and meet new people.

Club Description: We will have a large variety of board games, both old and new, for members to stop by and play. These games will mainly be rented out from students, in faith that players will not damage them. We will track the owners on the shared OneNote page, with the option offered to the owner to restrict their games to only be played if they are there if they are not comfortable with them being public. We hope it will not happen, but if a student's game is broken, we hope to refund them with club funding. There will also be a form for people request games they want to be added to the club. These policies may change if members become too careless with others' games. During meetings, we plan for at least one club leader to be at the meeting at all times. They will host a lobby of a different game every meeting, which will be communicated through a calendar on the OneNote page. However, if members would rather play a different game, they are welcome pick up a different game and start their own lobbies.

Trader Joe’s Enthusiast Club
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Mission Statement: Our mission statement is to spread the happiness and cheer of Trader Joe’s throughout the year while creating a strong Bellarmine community of fellow Trader Joe’s enthusiasts.

Club Description: The focus of our club is to share our favorite Trader Joe’s exclusive products with one another and we hope to grow closer to one another and understand one another better. We also hope to teach people about the history of the store and it’s exclusive brands.

The Vinyl Exchange Society

Mission Statement: We hope to create a fun and welcoming environment for those who enjoy collecting, exchanging, and listening to vinyl records.

Club Description: Our club will seek to bring together all those who enjoy or want to learn more about vinyl records. At meetings, we will play a singular record of the day while our members are able to mingle, exchange their own records with one another, or simply listen to the record. Our community aims to be a calming and welcoming place for all people, regardless of their background. Music has the unique ability to transcend societal boundaries, making it perhaps the best vehicle for community. More than that, music in the form of vinyl records provides a physical and tangible manifestation of the unifying power of music. This is why we have created the Vinyl Exchange Society.

BellBooks
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Mission Statement: Our mission is to read and discuss powerful YA literature Our club is focused on exploring this fancy way of creativity and imaginative information transfer called Reading A Book, something far too overlooked nowadays.

Club Description: We explore entertaining and impactful fiction with the purpose of learning and understanding our world a bit better through imagined scenarios.

Bellarmine Ice Cream Club
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Mission Statement: To serve ice cream and contribute to the world through sweets.

Club Description: The focus of my club will be to make ice cream and to fundraise to help certain organizations focusing on mental health. I hope to plan fundraising events and to try new flavors and ice cream making methods during meetings. I hope to build an accepting and hard-working community.

Bellarmine Lincoln Society
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Mission Statement: Provide a space for discussion and debate of conservativism and current events.

Club Description: The conservative presence on campus is very small but not non-existent. The Lincoln Society aims to give conservatives a space to discuss their views regarding current events without fear of backlash. Those with other political views are also welcome to engage in civil and respectful debate. It is important that we as a society remain civically engaged, and many with a minority belief are afraid of becoming politically involved because they believe they will be shunned for their ideology. In the Lincoln Society, all are welcome to express their beliefs without backlash.

Bellarmine Political Review
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Mission Statement: BPR hopes to foster an educated, interested, and respectful community with a diversity of opinions on politics, social issues, and economics, among many topics through presentations, article writing, and reviews of current events.

Club Description: During meetings, we will split our time between a presentation and discussion. A student interested in the topic will give a presentation to the whole club based on background research they knew or had completed. Afterwards, the club will discuss the topics presented and present their own opinions for the discussion to go more into depth about the topic. Throughout the year, members of the club have the opportunity to write articles about other related topics significant to them and share them with the community. In BPR, we hope to create a politically educated community who remains kind and composed even in moments of disagreement or conflict.

Mock Trial Club
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Mission Statement: The mission of our Mock Trial Club is to develop critical thinking, public speaking, and legal advocacy skills through collaborative and immersive courtroom simulations.

Club Description: Our Mock Trial Club will focus on learning about the legal system in a fun and hands-on way. During meetings, we'll dive into trial simulations, practice our arguments, and take turns playing different courtroom roles like lawyers and witnesses. We’ll work together to sharpen our public speaking and critical thinking skills while tackling interesting cases. The goal is to build a friendly and supportive community where everyone can grow, learn from each other, and gain confidence in their ability to present and defend their ideas.

AGAPE
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Mission Statement:AGAPE is a student club focused on providing God’s unconditional love to those on the margins through events and drives. Our mission, which is one of service and grounded in inclusivity and generosity provides fellow Bells with opportunities to leave an impact on our community.

Club Description: AGAPE’s focus is to serve our local community and to do this, we aim to use meetings to plan, design, and execute drives and fundraisers throughout the year. We hope to build a fun and inclusive community that allows all members to feel comfortable sharing their ideas for new or recurring drives.

BCP Supports MSF/Doctors Without Borders
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Mission Statement: BCP Supports MSF/Doctors Without Borders" aims to gather student advocates who educate and raise awareness about Médecins Sans Frontières' medical and humanitarian work for people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare.

Club Description: In addition to what was mentioned in the mission statement, the ""BCP Supports MSF"" Club is a reflection of a Médecins Sans Frontières' Student Chapter, both having the same goal of supporting MSF by holding fundraisers, organizing speaker events on campus, and taking part in MSF USA's advocacy campaigns. ""BCP Supports MSF"" has five aims/pillars: 1) Raise awareness and knowledge about MSF’s work in the field and about humanitarian issues 2) Encourage students to consider working with non-governmental organizations, such as MSF 3) Support MSF in advocacy campaigns 4) Raise money for MSF, their work in the field, and specific campaigns 5) Introduce a Jesuit philosophy to an international, independent, and medical humanitarian organization. While MSF provides emergency medical aid to over 70 countries, ""BCP Supports MSF"" hopes to introduce the purpose of MSF to Bellarmine students on campus. During meetings, I hope to introduce MSF to club members though two videos (10-minute ""This Is Us"" video and 30-minute ""In the Field"" video, update club members on MSF's latest activities through MSF's Month in Focus Series, update club members on the MSF Calendar (includes upcoming events), host a representative speaker from Médecins Sans Frontières, and plan advocacy and fundraising events such as a bake sale at BCP. Given these points, I hope to build a community inspired to assist in humanitarian work and promote social justice.

Bellarmine Advocacy Project (BAP)
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Mission Statement: The Bellarmine Advocacy Project is a group that aims to create social change at both a local and state level through political action and advocacy.

Club Description: At the start of the year we pick a certain topic to advocate for. We then create a plan for some type of legislation or push and work towards it. For example, last year our topic was youth mental health, and we researched and wrote a bill framework and worked with state officials to support that bill as it passes through Sacramento. Furthermore, in April, members of the club join the two-day California Ignatian Advocacy Summit in Sacramento. There, we get the opportunity to talk with state officials and their staff, and get a view of how our government works. Last year our delegation was recognized on the Senate floor by Senator Dave Cortese. Many members also go on the Justice and Advocacy immersion trip to Washington, DC in October. We helped to build a community of like-minded individuals who are passionate about advocacy and want to improve the world through legislation.

Bellarmine Recycling Club
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Mission Statement: Bells that work as a team to work towards a better environment, and to benefit the lives of those who are less fortunate.

Club Description: For meetings during Community Time, we will mainly discuss the CSP requirements and eligibility, the neighborhoods we will volunteer at, and new proposals. Outside of school, we will volunteer at a set neighborhood and either pass out flyers or collect recyclables. I hope to build a community of people who value teamwork, the importance of keeping our environment clean, and people who care about benefiting others through service.

Bellarmine Sustainability Club
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Mission Statement: We aim to make Bellarmine and the world a cleaner place through proposals, cleanups, and advocacy.

Club Description: This year, our club aims to finalize and send a proposal to add Recyling bins to Bellarmine's quad and campus. We hope to talk with Bellarmine's administration and business department to accomplish this goal and make Bellarmine more sustainable, especially with environmental justice being the focal point of our upcoming Justice Summit. With this, we also want to participate in and organize cleanups around San Jose and make new proposals to make not only Bellarmine, but also our city, cleaner and greener!

Bellarmine UNICEF Club
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Mission Statement: Our mission is to fundraise, advocate, educate, and build a community of like-minded peers willing to support humanitarian causes in dire need of aid throughout the world.

Club Description: The focus of the club mainly will be to host fundraisers for humanitarian causes supported by UNICEF, the nonprofit. So far our club has raised over a thousand dollars through various fundraisers, including our popular donut sales and online campaigns. We even partnered with local organizations like Blaze Pizza to amplify our efforts. This year, we’re planning on expanding and connecting events with UNICEF Clubs all around and outside the Bay Area. During meetings we plan on brainstorming ideas and discussions for the future fundraising events.

Bellarmine's American Red Cross Club
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Mission Statement: Guided by the fundamental principles of the American Red Cross and its mission to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors, Bellarmine's American Red Cross Club​ will learn, practice, and exemplify humanitarian values through mission­ related service projects.

Club Description: Our club's focus will be hosting an on-campus blood drive in the winter and spring in collaboration with another health-related club. In addition, we plan on having many fundraisers, the proceeds of which will go to the American Red Cross's service to the Armed Forces (SAF). In meetings, we hope to be efficient, gather logistics for blood drives and fundraisers, and do various Red Cross-related activities, such as Stop the Bleed and making cards for Labor Day and Veterans Day. We aim to create a compassionate and proactive community dedicated to service, where members work together to support those in need and promote emergency preparedness.

Eco-Friendly and Alternative Transportation Club
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Mission Statement: To build a community that respects and helps promote alternative transit methods that are safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly.

Club Description: In the Eco-Friendly and Alternative Transit Club our goal is to educate and engage students in the idea of alternative transit methods that help the environment in the fight against climate change. We hope to work with local transit agencies, to see how we can help them improve their transit systems, so that they are more efficient for the public and the community around them. During meetings, we will focus on the positives and negatives of using alternative methods of transit, and how we can make it cleaner and safer for everybody. In addition, we'll take an in-depth look at international transportation systems and how they differ from the United States, what may make them better than ours and why that is the case. This club cares about our environment and the transit system around us, we want to find ways to create more efficient and effective transit methods that will help get cars off the road.

Food4All
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Mission Statement: Food4All is a service driven club that aims to feed and support less-fortunate communities through donating extra cafeteria food and ingredients to charities, non profits, and shelters.

Club Description: Mainly, we would be taking unused, leftover food and ingredients from the Bellarmine cafeteria and donating it. We hope to support underprivileged people through helping them with the basic need of food.

Indigenous Justice Coalition
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Mission Statement: Representing and supporting the community movement for indigenous justice by shining a political light on unrecognized tribes.

Club Description: The club will focus on organizing and learning about various methods of helping and supporting tribes attempting to gain official federal recognition. It is an extension of the IJC last year, but with more focus on supporting the community. We already have a partnership with the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe who have enlisted the help of various Bellarmine students over summer to speak at San Jose City Council and participate at volunteer events. The club will serve as a concrete extension of those past efforts, with each meeting setting the groundwork for upcoming opportunities to support the Muwekma. The Muwekma are reaching the end of their fight against federal recognition so the club will soon incorporate other tribes as well, in an ongoing fight to support the Bay Area's various unrecognized tribes. The club meetings also function as a great opportunity to teach our Bellarmine community about the plight that Native American peoples face on a daily basis.

M.E.A.T. Club
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Mission Statement: Men Eating Animals Together while raising charity for and with others.

Club Description: We barbeque during school lunches, after school, and events to raise money for different charities. We want to build a tight-knit community where we can enjoy the cooking environment, and build deeper relationships as a BBQ Community.

Speakers For Change
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Mission Statement: Using the passion of speaking to foster change in the local community, starting with the leaders of tomorrow.

Club Description: Speakers For Change will be a social justice club, using the skills of fluency, presentation, and impromptu speaking to build the sense of confidence and presentation that can only come from public speaking. During meetings, the club will review basics and activities of speech and debate, primarily the aspects of public speaking and confidence. The meetings in school are extremely important, not just to teach the important lessons to members of our community and to spread the skill of public speaking but give students the opportunity to spread change in the local community. These meetings will communicate the core teachings and skills of confidence, presentation, and speaking which are necessary for all aspects of life and career. I have multiple slideshows and activities planned out. But it goes farther than that. Using this learned, proven curriculum that has benefitted so many Bellarmine speakers, past and present, the club will host Zoom lessons bi-weekly to teach underprivileged students in our local community - Mr. Bachmeier has already expressed interest in connecting the program with local organizations. If they want, the club members can help teach the class outside of the meetings and organize breakout rooms for the various speech-building activities and lessons we have planned. It is the perfect chance to take passions and teachings learned in Bellarmine and spread it to aspects of our local community. At last year's Justice Summit, I listened to lectures from Sebastian Salizar '24 and Mr. Tam. One taught about using your passion to make change, and the other about the societal stigma that often rejects those from underprivileged communities based off first impressions, especially during job interviews. Mr. Tam recounted first-hand stories of intelligent students who never had the same opportunities to grow because of these barriers. A personal passion of mine is speech and debate, an activity that has fostered a public speaking skill that has helped me in many ways. I believe that these skills that foster confidence, help out in many practical situations, and improve critical thinking can be applied as a direct solution to the issues that were brought up during the Justice Summit. I hope to be a part of building a Bellarmine community that loves to spread the skills they learn at this amazing school to our local community and to use their knowledge to address issues that are brought up, not simply ignore it.

The Bellarmine Garden Club
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Mission Statement: To be Gardeners for and with others "We take care of the garden, harvesting, tilling the dirt, taking care of the animals, little projects, and sometime BBQs.

The Lunch Bag Initiative
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Mission Statement: The BLBI's mission is to provide meals and services to combat homelessness and hunger in San Jose, in tandem with like-minded, local organizations, while delivering real-world, consistent impact in our community with dignity.

Club Description: The LBI is a club that is aimed at providing meals for the homeless. Every week we meet in the morning to make sandwiches and meals. They are then sent to the 3-4 shelters we are partnered with and feed over 150 people. Last year, we reached a total of 14,000 meals, and this year we are hoping to do much more. We also assemble hygiene bags, volunteer for organizations like Martha's Kitchen, and more. Our main aim is to create a community that is aware of the burgeoning numbers of homeless individuals in San Jose, build compassion for them, and encourage them to make an impact and make an effort to make someone else's day a little bit better. In addition, this year, in partnership with Dr. Arriola, CSP, and other faculty members, we are launching the Bellarmine Food Truck, which will have a handful of voyages all around San Jose to provide bulk meals and hot food in the future. We are excited to get going!

Bellarmine Interact

Mission Statement: Bellarmine Interact strives to be a club dedicated to cultivating an environment where service is above self.

Club Description: We provide opportunities to our members that allow them to become members of our society and contribute, educate, and serve those in need of help the most. Through projects created on a local and worldwide scale, Bellarmine Interact works with other high schools to ensure our mission is put into motion and is successful. We cultivate leadership and new connections as our community isn't just outside Bellarmine and across the Bay Area. Through this big sphere of influence, we plan to create an explosive change for those around the globe. The club's focus will be according to the Interact motto, “Service Above Self,” where Interact club members strive to cultivate leadership and encourage service through engagement and outreach. The main component is events related to local and international projects assigned by the district-level members of the Interact club. During meetings, we will plan and perform service projects and introduce the students in the club to leadership opportunities and different workshops they can attend. We hope to plan our school-wide events while performing outreach and gathering club members to participate in district-wide events. We hope to foster a community of empathetic, action-oriented, collaborative, and educated members who will grow as leaders while making a considerable impact locally and internationally.

Surfrider Club
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Mission Statement: Build and create a community involved in surfing and to maintain beautiful beach communities.

Club Description: We want to do beach cleanups to improve the areas that we love so much, as well as surf outings where we can grow our skills, teach new riders, and build bonds. In our meetings, we want to discuss dates and places for cleanups, news in the surf world, and get to know each other.

Habitat Helpers

Mission Statement: To help the unfortunate, to strengthen our skills, to support our community.

Club Description: Our club looks to help Habitat for Humanity through its service opportunities around the Bay Area to provide comfortable homes and lives for those in need. Our club also looks to teach members critical skills —such teamwork, organization, and prioritization— through these opportunities and meetings, which can be applied outside of volunteering and in the real world. Meetings will primarily discuss the background of Habitat (early on in the year), opportunities to volunteer, labor skills, and more. Every month, the club will find an event within Habitat and encourage all club members to volunteer. (Supervisors are provided through the organization to monitor the workflow and any minors, so students will be safe and kept on task).

Bellarmine Badminton Club
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Mission Statement: To offer the badminton players an environment to practice their sport as well as promoting the sport to those who are unfamiliar with it.

Club Description: We plan to focus our club on providing a space for the badminton players on Bellarmine’s campus to get a chance to practice as it is difficult to play outside with the wind and lack of equipment. We hope to be able to play once a week and seek to create a community of players who respect each other’s playing and foster a group that seeks to help other become better in the sport. For those who are new to badminton, we hope we can teach them the basics of the sport, a few important strokes and the flow of the game.

Bellarmine College Sports Club, BCSC
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Mission Statement: We want to express our love for college sports and support all athletes at the collegiate level.

Club Description: During last year, we focused on college football in the fall, our most active season. In which, we would discuss weekly matchups, heisman watch, predictions, a bracket challenge, and much more. We hope to expand upon this and bring forth all the love that the bellarmine community has for college sports. We are open to all and want all to participate to talk about the great college athletes and their teams. We love hearing new perspectives regarding college sports, and we ultimately want to celebrate the bond we have over college sports.

Bellarmine Skate Club
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Mission Statement: Our mission is to connect our Bellarmine community through the art of skateboarding and push ourselves to get out of our comfort zone when it comes to skateboarding.

Club Description: The focus of the club will be to inspire each other to get into skateboarding despite your level of skating experience. We want to build a strong and safe community because skateboarding can come off as intimidating and we want to break that stereotype by being welcoming to everyone. During our meetings we hope to accomplish planning skate trips, giving skate advice and we also want to film skate videos of us skating.

Bells Run
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Mission Statement: Teaching and inspiring runners to be faster, safer, and more sustainable.

Club Description: We will be focusing on all things running related. This includes inviting past alumni to speak, going to the weight room to talk to Mr. Amaral, and learning recipes for running snacks.

Ski and Snowboard Club
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Mission Statement: Create a welcoming space for Bellarmine students to explore skiing and snowboarding with their Bellarmine brothers.

Club Description: The focus of the club will be to plan trips to the mountains to go ski and snowboard as a group. We will plan trips during meetings and see what people want to do, such as go to the terrain park or try to go on more black runs. We hope to build a strong community that is excited to go on multiple trips a year.

The Fantasy Soccer Club
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Mission Statement: Our mission statement is that we hope to use our love for soccer to expand the community for those who also appreciate the beautiful sport.

Club Description: We plan on trying to introduce more people to the soccer community through playing fantasy premier league, having occasional activities that engage our members, such as crossbar challenges, shooting challenges, and prediction-based activities. We are trying to raise money through some of these challenges, and give back to the premier league charity on their website. Giving back to those in need through our love to the sport is our vision of this club.

The Pickleball Club
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Mission Statement: The Pickleball Club is a club with an environment where people can de-stress and have a good time playing some pickleball.

Club Description: The focus of our club is in playing pickleball. We hope to play pickleball during meetings. We hope to build a community that loves pickleball.

Mountain Biking Club
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Mission Statement: Our club wants to bring together people who love to bike anywhere, so that we can explore more trails and paths, but as a group, which is safer and much more exciting.

Club Description: The focus of our club is to organize meetups where we will be meeting on a weekend and then going on certain trails/paths. During our meetings, we would introduce ourselves, talk about bike recommendations, what trails are enjoyable, and when we should decide a time for a ride. We hope to build a community of people who are just getting into Mountain Biking so they can gain the knowledge and experience they need to build their expertise, and also people who are already experts, so they can teach their knowledge to other people as well. We hope to connect all people to are into Mountain Biking, no matter their skill level.

Futsal Club
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Mission Statement: The mission of the Futsal Club is to foster a community of sportsmanship, teamwork, and passion for indoor soccer by providing students with opportunities to engage in competitive and recreational futsal, promoting physical fitness on and off the court.

Club Description: The Futsal Club will focus on providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all to join. We will not only promote qualities like improving physical health but also sportsmanship, teamwork, and resilience. Ultimately, our goal is to create a supportive community where students can have fun and relieve stress through the joy of the game. We hope that students will foster new friendships and feel a sense of belonging within our club.

Rock Climbing Club
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Mission Statement: We hope to build community and brotherhood amongst Bellarmine Rock Climbers by giving them a space to meet new friends, providing opportunities to go on outings to climb with each other at fun locations, and encourage our members to bring in new members to introduce more people to this fun and healthy activity.

Club Description: I hope to bring climbers together to collaborate with eachother and make new friendships. Oftentimes people will go climbing by themselves afterschool and this will provide people with an opportunity to engage with their fellow bellarmine brothers in an activity they both love. I also would like to introduce members to volunteering opportunities in rock climbing that they might not know existed before. In meetings, I hope to plan events with fellow members and talk about volunteering info. I will try to get people to join Rio Sakya ‘23 in his program that gives kids from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas opportunities to climb. The main events of the club will be planned at meetings.

Bellarmine Chemistry Club
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Mission Statement: The Bellarmine Chemistry Club is dedicated to fostering a passion for the wonders of chemistry through exploration, collaboration, and innovation.

Club Description: The focus of our Chemistry Club will be to create an engaging and inclusive environment where students can explore the fascinating world of chemistry beyond the traditional classroom setting. We aim to make chemistry accessible and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of their current level of understanding. During our meetings, we will plan fun hands-on experiments, prepare for the Chemistry Olympiad, study for the AP Chemistry exam, and cultivate a supportive learning environment where club members can mentor one another. We hope to foster a community built on our intellectual curiosity towards chemistry.

Bellarmine Neurodiversity Club
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Mission Statement: Men for and with others who attempt to make the Bellarmine community more inclusive and understanding towards special needs individuals through educational workshops, volunteering, and guest lectures.

Club Description: The Neurodiversity Club at Bellarmine stands out because it celebrates and values the diverse ways people think and perceive the world. Rather than focusing solely on neurodivergent individuals, the club invites everyone from all backgrounds, aiming to develop an understanding of different thinking styles across the entire school. By organizing presentations, discussions, and activities, the Neurodiversity Club at Bellarmine helps students recognize the unique contributions that varied perspectives bring to the community. Through our presentations, we provide more information about the club and what Neurodiversity is about. Discussions allow us to share ideas about Neurodiversity in a group setting, where everyone has a chance to share their experiences. And for the fun part: activities. We use activities to inform people engagingly, allowing everyone to participate and learn about Neurodiversity. We hope to showcase the strengths of neurodivergent individuals by demonstrating how their different styles of thinking and unique attributes can enhance the environment at Bellarmine, and more importantly, create a safe and open-minded environment where everyone from all backgrounds feels welcomed.

Biotech Club
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Mission Statement: Teaching others about important lab skills, computational biology, and bringing in experts from the biotech sector.

Club Description: We will have student-led lectures, guest speakers, and opportunities to go to and participate in a community project at a lab.

Competitive Programming Club
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Mission Statement: We hope to foster an environment where critical thinking and problem solving are nurtured through collaboratively tackling algorithmic problems.

Club Description: Our meetings will be primarily focused on teaching algorithmic / data structures used for tackling coding problems centered around competitive programming. We will also work through problems to solidify these concepts and hold discussions to brainstorm ideas.

Game Development Club
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Mission Statement: Share the passion of game development and teach others how to make games.

Club Description: We will be teaching members how to code games, use a game engine (godot 4), and draw pixel art. These three skills are a bare minimum for indie game developers, so these will be the skills that we teach.

Hack Club
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Mission Statement: To educate Bellarmine students in the basics of web development (HTML, CSS, etc.) and apply what they've learned.

Club Description: Our club will mostly be split into two parts: one being teaching students the fundamentals of web dev, and the other being teaching students to apply what they've learned to helping their community (whether that be through innovative products or tutoring). We hope to foster an environment that helps other Bells explore and express their creativity through programming and instill a need to help their respective communities. We will have an opportunity in October for students to attend our hackathon as well!

Industries of Tomorrow
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Mission Statement: The Industries of Tomorrow Club is a Bellarmine collective that aims to explore, understand, and inspire a passion for learning about emerging industries, new technologies, and innovative solutions that power the future, cultivating a community consisting of ardent forward-thinkers looking to change the world.

Club Description: The club will mainly focus on building a club member's general knowledge of new emerging industries in the business landscape today, giving them more information about relevant developments and novel undertakings in marketspaces. With emphasis from AI to energy to agriculture to more, students during meetings will learn about new trends, analyze case-studies of developing companies/what they are doing well, hear from potential guest speakers later in the year, and learn about ways to get involved with/take advantage of the ever-evolving business landscape. Each meeting will hone in on a new/old discovery/economic problem depending on hte progress of prior meetings (there is an infinite amount of content that can be explored).

Machine Learning Club
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Mission Statement: The Machine Learning Club strives to foster a collaborative community where students can explore, learn, and share the wonders of machine learning, empowering each member to apply what they learn and make a positive impact on the world.

Club Description: During each meeting, we strive to provide students with the resources they need to dive into the expansive world of machine learning. In this club, we place accessibility first, striving to break down any barriers and form an inclusive community where anyone can learn. To do so, we hope to teach students the fundamental concepts of machine learning in an easily packaged yet highly applicable manner. Through this club, students will learn critical machine learning topics such as supervised and unsupervised learning. Students will learn cutting edge machine learning algorithms like Linear Regression, Naive Bayes, Convolutional Neural Networks, and even Generative Pre-trained Transformers! As our primary value is accessibility, we plan to structure our club meetings to appeal to students of all levels; students with little to no programming knowledge will start with the very basics of Python, while advanced students will have the opportunity to work in a collaborative environment to develop their very own research project!

Math Club
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Mission Statement: We hope to create an open, collaborative environment in math where members can freely share interesting ideas, discover new math, and solve challenging problems together.

Club Description: Club meetings will typically consist of members presenting interesting mathematical ideas on topics that typically aren't covered by school curriculum, or be group problem sessions where we work together on solving challenging math problems. The goal of these meetings is to help students experience what math is like beyond ordinary school courses, and build a collaborative community where anyone can have fun learning new things and sharing their own ideas.

Neuroscience Club
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Mission Statement: We hope to foster a supportive community where students can learn about neuroscience alongside others interested in similar topics as well as participate in activities pertaining to the topics we discuss and analyses of recent developments in the field.

Club Description: We are going to focus on first learning and reviewing some of the basics of neuroscience for new members of the club (and review for those returning), then learn more advanced topics that the club is interested in (we will take polls at the end of meetings when we are planning to do one of those). If there are new developments in the field, we will have small info sessions on those, learning about how the new developments affect the field and how that's related to what we have/will learn during the club time. We also hope to have activities and simple experiments where we see our learning playing out (some we have planned include ones that look at the role of stress and pressure in decision-making and test taking, creating illusions by applying how the brain processes the senses, among others).

AI Club
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Mission Statement: Our club seeks to equip the next generation of innovators with AI skills to positively impact the community through engaging lessons, hands-on projects, guest lectures, and competitions.

Club Description: With our club, we hope to teach people about how AI is revolutionizing the world, and how they can be part of that revolution. In our meetings, we’ll have a combination of lectures to teach new concepts, as well as hands-on-projects to enforce the concepts that we’ve taught. For example, we might teach our members about an algorithm like Neural Networks, then we’ll work with them on a coding project related to that algorithm. We’ll also bring experts from the fields of AI and computer science to talk to our members of how AI is being applied in diverse fields, like healthcare, finance, and even art. Our club aims to build a tight-knit community of people who are curious about the potential of AI or just want to challenge themselves!

Physics Club
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Mission Statement: We hope to introduce all students, avid physics lovers or not, to the workings of the universe, incorporating experiments, such as bottle rockets or DIY motors, and competition/olympiad preparation in our meetings.

Club Description: The focus of the club is to bring together students of all STEM or non-STEM backgrounds and uncover the mysterious of our world, of how objects function the way they do and how our universe works so perfectly. During meetings, we will hold fun experiments that are both visually captivating and are centered around crucial physics laws and concepts. In addition, we plan to introduce all members to physics competitions, such as the PhysicsBowl and the USAPhO (United States Physics Olympiad). We designed an in-depth and intuitive exam-preparation plan for these physics competitions that cover all the necessary subject-areas seen on physics competitions, setting up our members for great success. In addition, Physics Club always welcomes students with any physics questions to join, and we guarantee that we will resolve any misconceptions, obstacles, or struggles, transforming the idea of physics from a burden to an exciting and meaningful field of study. We hope to build a community that welcomes students with any range of experiences, ensuring that all receive the necessary help and guidance to reach their full potential. We will build a community that constantly wonders about "why" and "how" something works, fostering curious and open-minded individuals who are set and prepared for the future.

Pre-Health Club
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Mission Statement: We explore diverse healthcare careers, engage in impactful volunteer work, and attempt to connect members with professionals for meaningful advice on career opportunities.

Club Description: We want our members to feel the unique healthcare experience to better prepare them for their future careers. We hope to gain immense knowledge of the subject.

Smart-duino
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Mission Statement: Our mission is to create a community of collaborative engineers where we learn from each other and create novel solutions to simple problems.

Club Description: The first few sessions will focus on introducing Arduino as well as sensors and other electronic components to the students. We will learn the basics of Arduino, including wiring, programming, and debugging. As students become increasingly familiar with the projects, we will start enhancing our projects by incorporating abstracted data generated from AI models (such as facial detection/recognition data). Most importantly, the club aims to inspire students to think creatively and find their own solutions to problems.