The annual Club Fair introduces students to groups where they can explore their shared interests. This year, new clubs like Aviation Club and Data Science Club burst onto the scene and continued the trend of students turning their passions into Mitty communities. 

Aviation Club, cofounded by sophomore Dhaval Biradar, aims to provide a hands-on approach to learning about aviation. Its creation was inspired by Dhaval’s extended interest in flight technology—a unique passion with no related offerings in Mitty. “I like planes and flying, and there wasn’t anything related to that on campus,” he said. The club plans to develop their community with guest speakers, aerodynamics demonstrations, and competitions. 

Similarly, sophomore Anish Roy, one of the founders of the Data Science Club, turned a personal passion of his into a learning opportunity. His goal is to introduce students to an increasingly popular professional field that connects computer science and mathematics. Currently, the club focuses on the basics of the subject, and it hopes to ensure its members are active and excited about their games, workshops, and competitions. 

Both the Data Science and Aviation clubs are seeking to provide interactive experiences for their members. The focus of the clubs formed this year was student involvement, especially with a restructuring of a club application process that started last spring. Clubs encountered similar challenges when faced with this process. One difficulty Dhaval acknowledged was “coming up with meeting ideas,” but he found inspiration by looking around at the roughly 60 other school clubs for inspiration. New clubs also look to appeal to mixed student interests through holding collaboration meetings with other new or established clubs. Hoping to partner with the Math and Computer Science clubs, Anish “can see collaborations happening with two fields related to data science.”

Both founders aim to grow their initiatives by expanding on activities that will involve more students. New clubs like Data Science and Aviation share a common, long-term goal: to make the topics they cover more accessible to Mitty students. With some clubs, the goal is to create an opportunity for people have fun in a relaxed atmosphere, while other clubs plan to add excitement and prizes to the Mitty extracurricular experience. Regardless of their means, most clubs often evolve into larger groups with officers who pass on their experience to underclassmen. Anish advises those interested in leadership to “keep three things in mind: have an idea which relates to yourself, have engaging activities to keep students interested, and have decent advertising.”