Canterbury offers students a number of opportunities to pursue their interests. Below is a brief summary of the different club opportunities available. If you have an idea for a new club, talk with your advisor.
Also, if you are a member of a club, consider writing a column about your experience. Just contact Sherley Arias-Pimentel, Kelley Kuenzle, Riley Burns, Cam Napier or Mrs. O’Meara if you’re interested in writing a column.
Community Service Club: While the Community Service Club doesn’t meet weekly, it has offerings almost every week. For instance, the Club visits the nursing home every Tuesday, and it often has other events, including the Penguin Plunge, food drives and participation in local charity events. All are welcome and new ideas and causes are always appreciated! Stay tuned to Campus Info and School Meeting Announcements! (Contact: Ms. Mathewson)
S.E.C. (Special Events Committee): The S.E.C. plans many special events for the school. The majority of the time meetings are at 6:00 p.m. in the Steele Lecture Room. Dinner is provided at the meetings. Meetings usually occur every other week, but could happen more frequently if a specific event is about to happen. Sometimes the meeting takes place at the location of where the event will take place in order to prep for the event. The S.E.C. meetings are fun and lively. Each and every event the S.E.C. runs comes straight from the ideas of the student members. Led by Mrs. E.J., the students carry out the plans and run the event. Examples of S.E.C. events include: Canterbury Games, Haunted House, Pumpkin Carving Contest, Candy Cane Grams, Canterbury’s Got Talent, International Week and the International Affair and the March of the Saints Pep Rally. (Contact: Mrs. E.J.)
Animal Advocacy Group: The Animal Advocacy Group works to spread the word about animal rights, ending animal cruelty and helping animals in any way possible. Meetings occur in one of the small rooms in the library, usually after a school meeting, every other week. There is not a set day of the week for the meetings. The Animal Advocacy Group works with the New Milford Animal Welfare Society. The group’s big event last year was its “Animal Food Drive,” where it collected so much dog and cat food from the Canterbury community that the people who work at the N.M. Animal Welfare Scoiety were stunned when the students dropped off all the boxes of dog and cat food! The Animal Advocacy Group also strives to have a volunteer day where they volunteer on a Sunday at New Milford Animal Welfare Society for a special project. The group also strives to run a student volleyball tournament fundraiser. (Contact: Mrs. E.J.)
Math Club: The Club competes in the New England Math League against other private and public schools. Tests are given once a month, October throught March. There are six questions and the top five scores count towards the team score. Members can also compete as individuals. Members also take the AMC 10 or AMC 12 (based upon grade in school) which is run by the Mathematical Association of America. Students can move on to take the AIME if they receive a qualifying score on the AMC. (Contact: Mr. Roberts)
Kindness Club: Every act of kindness has the capacity to change someone’s life; kindness is transformational. What would happen if kindness became normal? The Kindnesss Club mission is to spread joy, love, and kindness. Throughout the year, this club spreads random acts of kindness around the Canterbury community, and locally, in New Milford. They want to inspire others to do the same, because no act of kindness is too small or too big. Their goal is to put a smile on people’s faces throughout the day, one random act at a time. Decide what kindness looks like for you and help change the world, one random act at a time. Join the tribe and help pay it forward.
The first Saturday after classes began, several members of the club randomly gave flowers to people around New Milford, at the Big Y and to Post Office employees, as well as random people they passed in town. They helped put carts away at the Big Y parking lot, place motivating notes on parked cars, and anonymously paid for people’s coffee at Starbucks. In addition to helping around the Canterbury campus, this year they also plan to donate their time at a local soup kitchen and preschool. (Contact: Mrs. McCarthy)
The Saints Spirit Club: The Saints Spirit Club focuses on supporting our athletic teams. Students rally at home games and lend support to our Saints. The prime fall event is the white-out game that occurs during the night football game. (Contact: Mrs. Mulhern)
Admission Ambassadors: The Admissions Office is a busy place in the Fall and Winter as families from around the globe visit our beautiful campus. Admission Ambassadors learn all about Canterbury’s facilities and academic, athletic, arts, and residential programming. These students represent Canterbury to visiting families and offer informative tours while sharing their experiences as Saints. (Contact: Mr. Cramphin)
Debate Club: The primary focus of the Debate Club is the promotion of informed, organized discourse. Students learn how to consider the logical structure of an argument critically and how to construct a logically sound, defensible response. Club members are also encouraged to practice their public speaking skills, as even the strongest arguments can fall short if not presented with confidence. The Debate Club aims to organize competitions within the school and eventually, with enough interest from the Canterbury community, to take part in interscholastic team competitions. (Contact: Mr. Bush)
Student Weekend Activity Team: This team plans and promotes all weekend activities for Canterbury students, including events like dances, the hypnotist, game shows, laser tag and paintball. It also help plans Spirit week, and works closely with the Special Events Committee. (Contact: Mr. Richardson)
Pizza and Prayer: Pizza and Prayer is a monthly dinner gathering to accommodate both boarding and day student schedules. It is a discussion-level event in which students socialize and engage in conversation centering on religious topics. Students and staff from all walks of faith are welcome to engage in the discussion. (Contact: Mrs. Garcia-LaVigne)
Chicken Keepers Club: Brand new, the Canterbury School Chicken Keepers Club is a student-run, self-sustaining project. Club members are able to learn how to maintain a healthy, egg-producing flock of chickens, how to repair and maintain the structures involved in an egg-producing flock and how to make chicken keeping a self-sustaining occupation through egg sales and inexpensive food sourcing. Club members will be involved in maintaining the flock, feeding the flock, as well as developing the marketing and business side of the fresh egg business, as they manage the sale of the eggs and the money involved in flock maintainance. (Contacts: Mr. Danenbarger and Mr. Roberts)
The Stock Market Club: The Stock Market Club helps students gain a fundamental understanding of investing. In small teams, students manage a mock portfolio of $100,000. The stock market club helps students understand the perils and promise of the world of investing. (Contacts: Mr. Kiefer and Mr. Diamond)
The Canterbury Business and Entrepreneurship Club: The Canterbury Business and Entrepreneurship Club will allow students to share their ideas and interests in the world of business. Students will learn to make a business plan based on their own entrepreneurial ideas and how to deliver sales pitches. They will also work to develop original business ideas and analyze real-world case studies taught in business school. (Contact: Mr. Diamond)
Women of Canterbury Club: Women of Canterbury seeks to develop leadership potential in young women and instill an appreciation of the role women can play in local and global communities. It strives to promote greater communication among the female constituencies. To achieve these goals, the organization arranges educational and social events for students that will enhance awareness of issues important to women. (Contact: Ms. Behan)
Yearbook: The Yearbook group meets daily to produce the annual yearbook. Among its many tasks, It identifies school events that should get coverage and assigns a student photographer to capture it on camera. Students have a say in creating the theme and overall design for the Yearbook. (Contact: Ms. Devine)
Sustanability Club: The definition of sustainability is living within the regenerative capacity of the Earth now and for future generations of people and all organisms. The goal for this club is to promote more sustainable ways of living and awareness at Canterbury. (Contact: Mrs. Roffe)
Robotics Club: The Robotics Club provides an atmosphere where students can learn about and experience remote controlled robots and autonomous ones. Students of all experience levels are welcome to participate in the completing of challenges ranging from navigating a maze to playing tic tac toe with robots. Students use a wide variety of robots, ranging from self-made ones made of Legos that they program to pre-constructed Sparki robots that require a more intense programming focus. Moving forward in the future, the club hopes to start competing in the First Tech Challenge. (Contact: Mr. Kennedy)
Civics Discourse Club: Civic Discourse met during the climactic months of the 2016 election to engage in the democratic process. The club is devoted to raising the level of civic discourse by respecting the right to be heard with an open mind, exercising the right to speak freely with informed opinions and raising the level of debate with an effective counter argument. The club intends to engage fellow citizens of Canterbury in discussing the issues through on-line communication using google folders. After the polls close, the club will unpack the results of the election and plan for a Model U.N. venture for 2018. (Contact: Mr. Johnson)
The Tabard: Join the staff of The Tabard if you’re interested in writing news stories, articles, sports coverage or columns, or if you’re interested in photography. The Tabard comes out three times a year and is always looking for help. Meanwhile, the online Tabard is always looking for articles on new and recent events that might be of immediate interest before the print version comes out, so there is plenty of opportunity. (Contact: Mrs. O’Meara)
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