The spring semester marks the beginning for a myriad of diverse new clubs, giving students the opportunity to make new friends with common interests. The Oracle takes a peek at a handful of Gunn’s newest additions.

Fencing Club

Come to T1 at lunch on Mondays or Tuesdays to learn about fencing with senior club president Giulio Gratta. Gratta, who has been fencing for six years and is currently in the Junior Elite Class at the Cardinal Fencing club at Stanford, started the club to promote interest in fencing at school.

According to Gratta, the club goals include “being able to fence at Gunn, which is not yet possible, and possibly making fencing a Gunn sport just like cross country, lacrosse and all the other sports.”

With already 30 members interested, the club is thriving. “It’s a great sport—some call it an art—that keeps me in great shape and is also very fun,” Gratta said. “I also get to siphon off my stress through fencing!”

Silent Hill Horror Society

If you like to watch and discuss horror films from different countries, join senior club presidents Masaki Nagamine and Bo Wang in V7 at lunch on Mondays and Thursdays.

According to Wang, the club is named after “Silent Hill,” a scary video game, which has a movie coming out in April. The club plans to take field trips to watch Silent Hill and other movies, as well as a film festival in San Francisco.

“We may establish a monthly or quarterly trip to the theaters for a new horror movie that is out at that time in order to have a broader view of the evolving culture of horror movies,” Wang said. “We will of course, keep the movies appropriate enough for the members.”

Joy Luck Club

Come to MP6 on Fridays at lunch for Chinese food, movies and mahjong with the Joy Luck Club.

The club began when sophomore club presidents Erica Chan and Caroline Shen were talking in math class. “We got around to clubs and making a club for something along the lines of playing mahjong and ‘gambling,’” Shen said.

This year, the club also prepares for future events to celebrate Chinese culture. “Next year, we will probably try to get Chinese events noticed and do some more activities than this year,” Shen said. “I was also hoping that we could encourage Chinese New Year to be noticed more, so maybe we could get the day off.”

Students for a Free Tibet

Students for a Free Tibet is a student run, international organization focusing on raising awareness and changing the political scene in Tibet. Come to S3 at lunch on Mondays if you would like to see Tibet freed from Chinese control.

“We will try and raise awareness about our cause,” sophomore president Zayden Tethong said. “We will be participating in protests against Google for their censorship in China.”

Club members will also be protesting the 2008 Olympics, hosted by China in Beijing. “We don’t believe that the Chinese Government deserves this privilege because of their persecution of the Tibetan people,” Tethong said. “In 1980, President Jimmy Carter boycotted the Olympics in Moscow due to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Some 50 other countries in addition to individual athletes joined the United States and didn’t participate. This led to the lowest number of participants since 1956. I think the United States should follow this policy towards the 2008 Olympics.”

Juana Briones Tutoring Club

If you would like to make a positive difference in an elementary school student’s life, join the Juana Briones Tutoring club. On Tuesdays and Thursdays after school, gather outside Room 10 at Juana Briones to tutor approximately 20 younger students with their homework and schoolwork.

“We have been tutoring all year but were not an official Gunn club,” junior club president Megan Robinson said. “I have organized all the planning of the tutoring and felt we could get more tutors if I started an official club.”

Robinson encourages tutoring children because it is a precious experience. “It’s just a great feeling to know that you are making a difference in the kids’ lives—many of them don’t have much support at home, so they really look forward to tutoring days and the help they get from older kids,” Robinson said. “It is also really fun as a high school student to, in a way, return to elementary school. It’s fun to see what they are learning and be in that carefree, low stress environment again.”

Movie Makers Club

Movie fans and students interested in directing movies should join the Movie Makers Club in IA7 on Wednesdays at lunch.

The club was started by sophomores Alex Rasgon and Dan Neumann who became interested in making movies after producing a promotional video for the Cyberathletic Scholastic League club last year.

In addition to showing movies to the public for free, the club plans to study filmmaking techniques and to assemble a team for producing short movies to submit to film festivals. “Our club is dedicated to watching movies and reviewing the parts of them we thought were well done or poorly done, and using these to help our movie-making abilities,” Neumann said.

Chamber Music Club

Students interested in playing chamber music and making friends should join the Chamber Music Club, which meets in P-14 at lunch on Thursdays.

Founded by sophomore Jonathan Lin and freshman Christine Kim, the club plans to organize members into groups ranging from duos to octets. Groups will practice and perform selected chamber music pieces at possible places such as senior houses, the Veteran’s Hospital, Stanford or Gunn.

“The player’s main motivation should be either the joy of playing, whether it’s with friends, or performing,” Lin said. “The reward for this is friendships and community service hours.”

Theatre Sportz

If you like improvisational games or have ever watched “Whose Line is it, Anyway?” on television, come to the “small theatre” (V14) at lunch on Fridays to participate in the Theatre Sportz club.

Freshmen club presidents Lee Friedman, Franzesca Mayer and freshmen club vice president Sonya Raymakers started the club after taking the Theatre 1 class at Gunn. They enjoyed the Theatre Sportz unit and decided to start a club.

“In most of the games, the actor or actors are given the setting and their relationships with each other,” Mayer said. “Then they are asked to make a scene using that information, the specific games’ rules and their imaginations.”

Pink Ribbon Club

The Pink Ribbon club meets in room L2 at lunch on Wednesdays. Led by juniors Presidents Katie Yip and Jennifer Lien, the club promotes breast cancer awareness fundraisers. Money raised goes to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, which provides free mammogram tests for patients, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer.

“We felt that it was important to raise the awareness of breast cancer in our community,” Lien said. “Many people are uninformed, or they are misinformed about breast cancer, so we felt that forming a club could help.”

Future Pink Ribbon Club activities may include seminars and events such as garage sales, car washes, barbecues and breakfasts. “Our dedication to the cause will make it possible to fund the best researchers in the breast cancer field,” Lien said.