By Jonathan M. Gornet ’14
THE ROUNDUP
Club presidents and leaders packed the Great Hall Sept. 1 to market their organizations at the annual club fair.
The event allows students to see the multitudes of activity opportunities available to them.
Currently Brophy offers students dozens of clubs to be a part of.
But how did Brophy clubs begin?
“It started because we wanted to give kids anything, it was literally anything kids wanted to meet and organize about; we wanted to give them the opportunity to do that,” said Director of Scheduling & Student Records Mr. Tony Oldani, who is helping to oversee student clubs this year.
“Part of that delves from the mission we do here, a student-centered institution.”
“Because kids wanted that, … it really became ‘OK how do we make this place deeper for most students, how do we allow them to connect to each other on a deeper level on something that they feel passionate about, whatever that might be,” Mr. Oldani added.
Clubs today are in some ways the same type of groups they have always been.
But Mr. Oldani said it was former Assistant Principal for Student Activities Mr. Jeff Glosser who brought them to the high level they are at now.
Before Mr. Glosser, Ms. Dorothy Dunnion held the assistant principal role and also helped guide the development of clubs as students now know them.
“I oversaw all parts of student life that were not academic or spiritual,” Mrs. Dunnion said of her position.
She said clubs have always included key elements to make them a part of the Brophy experience.
“All clubs included a spiritual component, a service component in addition to what the club was,” Ms. Dunnion said.
Mr. Oldani said those elements made the groups a part of what the school is all about.
“Because that’s who we are as a school and that has to be a part of everything we do, not just part of a particular curriculum or particular office,” Mr. Oldani said.
“It just basically said that a club represents what we are, there has to be a form of experience to it, otherwise it would just be a bunch of kids hanging out.”
Along with joining clubs, students also now play a larger role in the administration of clubs, such as organization and promotion on Blackboard.
