Clubs are an important part to the high school experience. The school has a lot of clubs, which is great for the student body. Students participate in after school activities to get to know peers and teachers. They form bonds that would not have been formed from just attending their classes.

A new club that most students do not know about, but is starting their second year as a club is the STEP Club, which is sponsored by Spanish teacher Chelsea Stone. “I chose to sponsor it primarily because the girls are so passionate about it,” Stone said. “But also because it’s important to increase the visibility of strong, intelligent young women of color channeling their energy into unique, positive, and inclusive activities, especially at JHS where diversity is so severely lacking.”

The club is in its second year, but it is new to the high school. “It was a club at the middle school,” Joy Nyamu ’22 said. “But we still had to bring it over here. We had to go to a board meeting and get it approved again, so we started a little later than we thought we would.”

STEP Club is where female students of color learn a dance, and the focus of the dance is the footwork along with sound effects to make the dance have a little more. “It is a type of dance where you use clapping and stomping, and your body to make music,” Julia Manyame ’22 said. They practice on Tuesdays and every other Thursday in the show choir room from 3 to 4:30. “During our practices we work on our technique and correlations. We try to make up different routines as well.”

The girls in STEP are the heart of the club but they know they would not be anywhere if it was not for their sponsor, Stone. “It seems like she just sits there, but she actually is the person who does all of the behind the scenes,” Manyame said. “She organizes practices and performances, reaches out to people and runs the club really well.”

One of the hopes the students of STEP club have is performing their dances for people. The group has not performed yet but they are planning to perform during school assemblies and during International Night.