Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

For all the things that you love to watch or play, there comes a time, and even an exact moment for some people, where you realize just how passionate you are about it.

That moment is what sparked the idea for the presidents of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Star Wars Club to start their own clubs that have turned into communities at Lane.

Hope Beckett, Div. 562, and Aaila Ali, Div. 574, are co-presidents of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Beckett and Ali tried to start their club last year but missed the deadline by a couple of days.

Despite that, Beckett and Ali continued to work on ideas for their club.

According to Beckett and Ali, their first meeting of the year had a turnout of around a hundred people crammed into a classroom.

With the club in full swing, Beckett and Ali incorporated games from the “Harry Potter” series, such as a sport called “Quidditch,” around the same time as Turkey Bowl and Rice Bowl.

“I feel like a lot of them [club members] are [thinking] ‘Gimme the club right now,’ like it’s a fan-service thing, but we really wanted it to be a community,” Beckett said.

Beckett and Ali are very open to anyone who wants to be a part of “Hogwarts.”

In Harry Potter there are four different houses in which students are sorted into: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.

During their second meeting, club members answered a series of multiple choice questions to determine which house they will be put into.

Each of those four houses will have a president or vice president as its representative who will act as the head of the house.

“We wrote a seven page constitution with attributes describing who would be the best fitted for each house representative,” Ali said.

The houses each represent a different attribute that Beckett and Ali wanted to bring out in their club, but they will not let the categorizations subdivide their club. The goal is to get all of the members to come together as a whole.

Along with the games Beckett and Ali plan to incorporate, they also want to make wands as a type of team building exercise.

“I really think that would bring us closer together as a community,” Beckett said.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is not just a community for Harry Potter lovers; Beckett and Ali work alongside Key Club to offer their members service learning hours. The reason they do this is because they wanted their club

to be more than just fan-based. Beckett and Ali wanted their club to be community-based and they wanted to do so by giving back to the community.

“With each attribute of the club, we realized that if they did work together, they would achieve more together in their houses. So really, it’s a part of building that connection,” Beckett said. “We could just have a club just for liking stuff and watching movies, but it would be better if they came together.”

Beckett and Ali hope that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry represents the Harry Potter series accurately and creates a community rather than just a club.

Star Wars Club

Jeremy Kean, Div. 663, is a life-long “Star Wars” fan and the president of the Star Wars Club here at Lane.

“I knew when I first thought about starting this club that I was the most qualified to do it, so I might as well just own up to it and take the skills that I have and implement them into something that I’m going to put a lot of passion and effort into,” Kean said.

Kean worked all summer trying to put together and work on ideas for his club.

“It’s exciting to me because I know that it’s my job to show all these people that love ‘Star Wars’ or who don’t love ‘Star Wars’ all of the reasons why ‘Star Wars’ is really really cool,” Kean said.

Star Wars Club is not just for people that have seen “Star Wars.” It is also for people who have not seen it or anybody who wants to get a better look.

“My goal is for everyone to appreciate the Star Wars movies and everything about them. I want people to enjoy the amount of art and creativity that went into making these movies,” Kean said.

Kean hopes that his club will give people who attend an understanding and perspective toward the Star Wars series.

“I feel very excited every time I come to this club,” Kean said.

Kean sets up activities to watch the Star Wars movies, shows, read the books, play the games, listen to the soundtracks, act out scenes, and much more.

There are two different groups within the club; one group represents the Galactic Empire (the dark side) and the other group represents the Rebel Alliance (the light side).

Through these groups and the club itself, a community is forming.

“I think we get closer every week. Nobody really knew each other the first couple of meetings, but everybody was still bound by this appreciation for ‘Star Wars’ and I feel like we’re starting to become a little Star Wars family,” Kean said. “Everybody is really talking to each other and we’re all having a good time.”

The Star Wars Club gets an average of about 15 people every club meeting. Some of those people are returning each week and some are new faces.

“People are really returning. People just really like ‘Star Wars,’” Kean said.

Kean’s inspiration to start Star Wars Club stemmed from discovering an amazement brought from the film.

“I remember that when I was a kid my dad came in with this bag from Game Stop and handed me a PC game, Star Wars: Battlefront II, a T for Teens game, and my mind was just blown,” Kean said. “I thought it was the coolest thing ever.”

The game was Kean’s heart and soul when he was a kid, and because of that there is now a community at Lane for fans of “Star Wars” and for those who may just be interested in it and curious to learn more.

Whether it be wizards or Jedis, the creativity that lives throughout Lane has got you covered.