With the beginning of the school year comes a wide variety of new clubs. Created by students who are pursuing their interests, supporting a cause, or both, these new clubs are a welcome addition to Redwood culture and student life.

Ukes Not Nukes

The Ukes Not Nukes Club is dedicated to spreading political awareness through music, specifically through ukuleles, according to club founder and president Rachel Halilej.

Halilej said that meetings will probably involve discussing music and politics.

“We’ll probably just play music and talk about the significance of the music from a political standpoint,” she said. “Music can start revolutions and bring peace.”

Halilej said that the club doesn’t yet have any events or fundraisers planned. “We’ll probably just protest in the parking lot, so look out for Occupy signs and sleeping bags,” she said.

The club will meet in Room 115, although the meeting day is as of yet undecided.

Modern Medicine Club

According to founder and president Elisa Fazzari, the Modern Medicine Club is dedicated to providing an opportunity for students who are interested in medicine to get more involved in the medical field.

“The purpose of the club is to help people like me, who have an interest in medicine and want to know more about the field, stay up-to-date about current medical issues,” Fazzari said. “We’re going help out with whatever internships they want to know about, get in contact with Paula Vantrease at the College and Career Center, see what opportunities she can offer – that kind of thing.”

Fazzari, who said she has wanted to be a neurosurgeon since she was 10 years old, said she got the idea for the club when she was interning at Kaiser over the summer.

“Basically every day I got to go into their operating room and I got to see and learn a lot,” Fazzari said. “And there were really a lot of people that wanted to teach me, and the surgeon was explaining everything that was happening and I was like, ‘Wow, this is really cool – it would be really cool if they could share this with other kids, not just me.’ We also had a lot guest speakers in our program that explained how they got from where I was – having an interest in high school – to become what they are today. So I can have those people come in and talk to the club members, like they did to me.”

Fazzari also said that there will be a humanitarian aspect of the club in that they will be donating to the American Red Cross.

“Meetings are going to vary,” she said. “One club meeting might be discussing plans for a bake sale, and the next will be debating the latest news on stem-cell research.”

The Modern Medicine Club will meet on Tuesdays in room 237.

Art with Heart

Art with Heart is a new club that will be creating care packages for children at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital.

According to Mia Poynor, the club’s founder and president, she originally just wanted to draw pictures for children in the hospital, but is now working with the Lucille Packard Foundation to make care packages for them.

The club will be fundraising, then using the money they raise to buy art supplies to put in the packages along with pictures the club has drawn.

However, Poynor said that you don’t have to be particularly artistic to join the club.

“The pictures don’t need to be super artsy and complicated with meaning behind them – just generic pictures,” she said. “So it wouldn’t matter if you were a bad artist because you could just draw like a sailboat or something.”

Art with Heart will be meeting in Room 208, most likely on Mondays, although the day as of publish time undecided.

Outdoor Adventure Club

In the words of co-presidents Carly Van Liere and Ian Lewitz, the Outdoor Adventure Club’s purpose is to allow opportunities for students to “get outside and find something to do.”

“It’s to provide people – if they’re bored on the weekends – with something active to do, like going on a hike or going swimming at the beach or kayaking – just enjoying the outdoors that Marin provides,” Lewitz said.

According to Van Liere, the weekly meetings will mostly consist of discussing which adventures the club would like to do that weekend, and then planning the activities.

Van Liere and Lewitz also said that students in the club don’t have to go on all the weekend activities, and, conversely, even if students can’t make the meetings they can always join in.

The Outdoor Adventure Club meets Wednesdays in Room 235.

Other new clubs to look out for are the Yoga Club, Friday Night Live, the Renewable Energy Club, and the Kasparov Blitz Chess Club.