Villa Maria Academy has many clubs available to Villa students. They help students to stay involved.
Pep Club is open to Prep students as well. Mr. Joseph Bell, the faculty head of Pep Club, is looking forward to all the club is doing this year.
“Pep Club is an organization, open to all Prep and Villa students, that celebrates the great things that we do at Prep and Villa,” Mr. Bell said.
Villa Pep Club is just starting to include Rally Crew, from Prep, into Pep Club to correlate events together. One event that was held and will be held every season is the Parade of Champions.
“Pep Club just put on the first ever Parade of Champions, which is an evening pep rally for the fall sports athletes from both campuses,” Mr. Bell said. “Pep Club is planning to host a Parade of Champions for the winter and spring seasons. They also plan to encourage attendance at sporting events and plays, as well as in-school send-offs and rallies.”
ASL Club is a new club this year, created by senior Emma Sanders, and it had been gaining a ton of popularity. Sanders wanted to start this club because she feels that society as a whole undervalues the deaf community.
“We always expect the deaf to assimilate to us by learning how to talk, read lips, and use hearing aids,” she said. “This results in a sense of isolation for the community and creates an exclusive environment for the hearing.”
She thinks she can help change this and put an end to this issue by starting this club.
“I thought that if I could assist students in learning ASL, even if it is just a small group, then I would be making a difference in this world,” Sanders said. “I came to realize that most students do not have the opportunity to learn sign language at school while numerous foreign languages are offered. In fact, there are more deaf and hard of hearing people in the world that utilize sign language than German speakers and almost as many as Spanish speakers.”
Sanders does not see any reason why students are unable to learn sign language in schools, as it is such a prevalent language. She has many plans to get her club going.
“My plans for this club are to introduce the basics of ASL to the students here at Villa while focusing largely on bringing awareness to the deaf community and culture,” she said. “Because it is unreasonable to teach the ASL language as a whole solely through this club, it is my hope that this will encourage students to further their knowledge in it and continue to be proactive by learning the language beyond what we will offer.”
She also explains that they have outside help and sources apart from Villa.
“We are in contact with several individuals that are either part of the deaf community or play a role in supporting the deaf community,” she said. “These individuals will serve as guest speakers for the club and contribute to bringing awareness to the deaf culture which is one of the main goals we want to achieve.”
