Fair Grove Levels Up

Fair Grove hosted its first-ever Nerd Club meeting on January 26 in Mrs. Englis’s room from 8th hour until 4:30 after school.

This new club dedicated to video game enthusiasts was an idea of Mrs. Feldman, a high school math teacher at Fair Grove. She commented on her motivation to start the club, “We have a population of students who aren’t always involved in the clubs and activities we currently have.” 

Mrs. Feldman wanted to give these students an opportunity they did not have before, so she took the initiative to sponsor a new club. She continued, “I just want to make sure we are reaching out to all the kids in our school and giving them an opportunity to be involved.”

Feldman had the help of Fair Grove high school science teacher Mrs. Englis. “I’m addicted to video games, 100%. I spend way too much of my time playing video games. So, when Feldman said she was starting Nerd Club, I said, ‘I’m in,”’ Englis shared.

The pair was lucky enough to receive a donation from a former student that jump-started the club. Englis explained, “We had an Xbox that was donated by a former Fair Grove student. I had posted on my personal Facebook saying we were starting a Nerd Club and I asked if anyone had any consoles they were not using anymore. And so, she donated that as well as about 30 games and 2 controllers.”

The first meeting included kids playing a wide variety of games including Stardew Valley, NBA 2k, Madden, Forza, and the most popular, Among Us. Englis explained, “I started up Stardew Valley and that was fun, but my favorite was the giant game of Among Us. We started up a local game of just the kids who were here after school and there was lots of screaming, lots of murder and lots of lying, it was just a lot of fun.” 

Overall, the first meeting was considered a success. Feldman commented, “We had a good turnout and we had some kids after school who couldn’t be there during eighth hour. I was just glad to be able to make connections with some kids I normally wouldn’t see outside of a school setting.”

She continued, “We just had a good time, it was very chill. I just like building relationships with the students. There were a lot of laughs and it was a very relaxing environment.”

While Englis said she believes the meeting was a success, she also has hopes for the next meeting. “I think it was a success, I was hoping there would be more people there though, because who doesn’t love video games! I know kids are busy, though,” She said. She added that she is hoping for more upperclassmen to attend in the future.

Nerd Club will be the last Thursday of every month, the next meeting being February 23.