Remember that feeling you had walking through the doors of Ipswich High School for the first time? Maybe you were nervous, excited, scared or like most students, extremely confused. You had heard how all the upperclassman hated the freshman or how there was a swimming pool on the roof (here’s a little tip; there isn’t) but all you wanted to do was find your friends and figure out where the heck you were going. A few weeks into the school year after you have somewhat of an idea of what is going on you might start to think about how to get involved and make your Ipswich High School experience the best it can be.  One way to do that is by joining clubs.

Some of the most popular clubs that students are involved in are: The Environmental Club, People to People, Art Club, Jazz Band, Chambers, Homework Club, Theater and Interact. Interact is a club about serving the community on a small and large scale,;they also branch out to other towns and are a part of Rotary, which gets people involved internationally. I even had the pleasure of interviewing the President of The Interact club- Alice Hurst. To go into more depth, I asked Alice what the club meant to her, and she said how it “made [her] more aware of a lot of issues in the community and even the world. Interact has given [her] a chance to make an impact and leave behind a positive legacy at Ipswich High School; [she] also gets to spend time with and meet amazing people”. Alice also mentioned some of the fun projects and activities they do. One especially crazy one is when the club raises money to stop Polio. This is a virus that may cause paralysis and is easily preventable by the polio vaccine. However, in many third world countries where this is more of an issue, many people can not afford to pay for their vaccinations and that’s where Interact comes in. The members get together and ask people to sponsor them as they jump into the ocean in the middle of March! That’s just one of the many ways Interact sets out to help better the world.

Clubs at Ipswich are huge but there are other ways to be a well rounded and successful student. A great resource that is avaliable to all students are their guidence counselors. Naturally, many incoming students tend to think that their guidance counselors are just therapists ;however they are so much more. As I interviewed one of the guidance counselors, Justine May, she told me about how many students are unaware that they are a valuable resource when it comes to changing classes, college and just being there to help. One thing she touched upon was the adademic support class. This is a room where students can go to all hours of the day and get the academic help that they need. She mentioned how she wished more people knew about this and also NHS. This is the National Honors Society they are involved in community service, organizing events for fundraising and the senior class along with tutoring underclassman.