New clubs build new communities

Gwenie Lee

October 22, 2024

This year, Lincoln has many new clubs. Some students have founded them while others have turned discontinued classes into clubs. Photo by Isabella Musgrove

Throughout Lincoln, students join clubs to check out fun topics and hang out with peers. These clubs include hanging out with old people, making new drinks, learning about ethics, playing pickleball and more. This year Lincoln has over ninety clubs. The Cardinal Times checked in with Lincoln’s news clubs to see what they are about.

Lincoln’s clubs

LHS Barista Club

Q&A with Co-President Melia Nyhus

Why did you and others create this club?

"We created this club to introduce other students at Lincoln to new drinks and how to make them. There’s a lot of cultural background behind certain drinks, and we think it's important that we can teach people how to make good drinks and also learn about their cultural backgrounds.”

What does your club do/create/explore? How do you do this?

"We explore all types of drinks like matcha, chai, coffee and lattes, while also teaching people how to master certain drink-making methods and using tools.”

What do you do at meetings/how do you run meetings?

“We have two people [the club leaders] make a drink in front of everyone and explain the step-by-step process of making that drink, and also explain the background behind it, how it came to be and where it comes from. At the end, we’ll give out samples.”

What are your club’s goals for this year, what do you hope to achieve?

"Our goals for this year are for everyone to know how to make the drinks that we discuss, to master drink-making techniques and also like the drinks."

Barista Club meets during lunch on A-day Wednesdays in room 269.

Pickleball Club

Q&A with Co-President Adele Betik

Why did you and others create this club?

“I decided to create the Pickleball Club last year because I was able to form an awesome community through [the sport]. Pickleball is the number one growing sport in America, so I thought it would be fun to get a lot of high schoolers involved. I have always loved the sport. I play with my dad a lot, so I thought it would be fun to bring it to Lincoln and get to meet a lot of new people.”

What does your club do/create/explore? How do you do this?

“The club meets every week to play pickleball, learn some new skills and get to know each other. The key way that we do this is just being super open and willing to try new things with the club. This helps us all as pickleball players, and helps us form a community.”

What do you do at meetings/how do you run meetings?

"At our regular meetings, which happen every Sunday, we meet up at Ida B. Wells High School pickleball courts, and we play for about two hours. We start out with a game of solo ‘King of the Court’ to get people communicating. From there, we set up some duos and get people playing, chatting with each other, and eating some snacks.

What are your club's goals for this year, what do you hope to achieve?

"We are working with an outside person to get pickleball recognized as an official Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) sport, which is kind of crazy. It’s going to take some time, so we are not sure it is going to happen this year, but we just want to grow this club as much as possible and form an awesome community that we hope can last throughout Lincoln, even when all of us graduate.”

Pickleball Club meets every Sunday at Ida B. Wells High School.

Generations United

Q&A with Co-President Rose Brawn

Why did you and others create this club?

“We created this club to create a community between students at Lincoln and the senior citizen community around Portland.”

What does your club do/create/explore? How do you do this?

“There are two parts to our club. The first part is our meetings during lunch, where we create gift baskets, cards and do our pen pal program. We send that to the [senior living] homes we support. The second part of the club takes place at the homes. Our club hosts games nights and hangs out with senior citizens who live there.”

What do you do at meetings/how do you run meetings?

“We usually start with a slideshow, go through what we’re going to do and start making the cards and gift baskets. We have everyone help plan our events, even if they are not going, just to gather input from every club member.”

What are your club's goals for this year, what do you hope to achieve?

“Our club's goals are to create a stronger community between Lincoln students and Portland's senior citizens, and create a support system for each other.”

Generations United meets every Wednesday at lunch in room 221.

Puño Y Letra

Q&A with Leader Lola Hodge

Why did you and others create this club?

“We created this club because it was a class for about nine years and this year was going to be the class’s tenth year, but then due to budget cuts, [the class] was cut. I was in the class for two years, and I thought it was an amazing experience that allowed others to connect and learn about different cultures. I decided that I wanted to continue it as a club so people could enjoy the experiences without having the class environment.”

What does your club do/create/explore? How do you do this?

“Our club gathers a group of people that either speak Spanish as their first language or have learned it through the school. We ask [club members] to write an article on whatever they want to write about, which is then put into the magazine, and distributed out to different PPS schools.”

What do you do at meetings/how do you run meetings?

"We are thinking of doing chill meetings where we have people talk about their article ideas and talk about how they would like to enhance their learning and experiences. We want to have fun and bond as a community while still doing the work.”

What are your club's goals for this year, what do you hope to achieve?

“Our goal this year is to publish at least one magazine. Last year when we were a class, we published two magazines, but we hope this year we get at least one magazine out. We also want to grow the club and raise awareness about the things we do in it.”

Puno Y Letra meets every Friday during lunch in room 407.

Ethics Club

Q&A with Founding Member Lily Boucher

Why did you and others create this club?

“The ethics class was dropped from the curriculum at Lincoln, so [our group] had to make it a club.”

What does your club do/create/explore? How do you do this?

“The goal of the club is to participate in Ethics Bowl, which is a [statewide] competition. Members have twelve cases that they read, and they analyze and decide their ethical position on them. Then, they present and compete them at the competition.”

What do you do at meetings/how do you run meetings?

"We sit around a table and discuss cases. The cases give us questions, and we take the questions into account and create position statements and arguments with counterarguments, and finally closing statements. It is really just a big conversation.”

What are your club's goals for this year, what do you hope to achieve?

“Our goal is to win state and that’s what we hope to achieve.”

Ethics Club meets Mondays and Thursdays after school in room 311.