By Rachel Neglia
When I was a freshman, there was a German Club. I could walk into Room 202 on a Friday morning and expect both German music and Settlers of Catan (in German, of course!) to be played simultaneously. Sadly, the German Club disintegrated over the course of that year, and neither I nor my German classmates had an extracurricular outlet to practice German.

This semester, however, the situation is different. In February, Elinor Sauer, a German III student, reestablished the German club as a completely student-run activity. “German is one of my favorite classes, so it didn’t make sense that there was no German Club. I proposed the idea to my German class and everyone gave really positive feedback, so I formed it,” Elinor explains. The club has blossomed with approximately 20 active members representing all of the various language classes.

Because it is still in its formative stages, the club has not planned very many activities. Even so, members planned to meet on Saturday for a traditional German brunch to commemorate the year. “Because it’s so late in the year, this is really just a test-run,” Elinor says. “Next year we will be opening the doors for the entire high school.” She sees the club expanding in the future with more events to enrich members’ knowledge of German language and culture, and hopes to even “organize an educational field trip.”

Herr Gray, the de facto administrator of the German Club, commented that he believes the newly formed club to have more potential than the last. “The last club struggled because it was held before school and everyone who would otherwise have been interested was too busy with sports,” he says. “The current club is promising because it is held at lunch and is student-run.”

He suggests, however, that the club be more active in fostering more of an interest for German at TPA, and also provide enriching opportunities for students already in German. “There are a lot of club members who do not take German, who are, understandably, in German club for the fun of it,” he points out. “The club leadership could certainly devise some fun activities to teach the newbies some of the basics -nothing complicated, just enough to keep them enthused.”

At Tempe Prep, students can easily form their own clubs and have substantial turnouts. There has always been a demand for a German Club, and we can hope that that demand only grows in the future. Although there are few meetings left this year for the German Club, it will certainly be back next year, so please show your interest then. Auf Wiedersehen!