When a reader looks through the index of the 2024 Gretna High School yearbook, their eyes will land on hundreds of teens who are featured in numerous photographs, stories and quotes. If they look beyond those well-known names, they will see students who are featured on only two pages: one with their school picture and one with their name. These students are not featured in any club pages, any sports photographs or any polls. When it comes to these students, what keeps them from connecting with a club or sport?
“There are teachers and coaches who have put a lot of effort into developing a program and recruiting younger students,” said Counselor Melissa Ryan. “They have the older students mentor those younger students, and that helps to keep the students involved.”
There are 48 clubs and 14 sports that Gretna High School offers to all students, freshmen to seniors. Within those programs are 732 students, according to information provided by Student Services, leaving 190 students with no extracurricular activities inside of the school environment. Ideally, each student would be involved in some sort of school activity in order to benefit themselves and the school environment.
“If it’s possible for families and kids to be involved, there’s so much research that shows that kids who are involved come to school,” said Vice Principal Theresa Huttmann. “Kids who don’t feel connected don’t care. Kids who are involved in a sport or activity are kind of held accountable.”
In a study done by the Office of Student Life at the Ohio State University, the data collected shows that students who are involved in their university environment are 2.1 times more likely to be satisfied with their college experience, more likely to attain better grades and have a better physical and mental well-being. On the opposite side of the spectrum, a study done by the College of Education at North Carolina State University found that students who do not go out of their way to be involved struggle to focus and devote themselves to tasks and experience mental health issues.
“I think it’s been very beneficial, because it has taught me how to interact with people,” senior Alex Hallgren said when he was asked if being involved has helped him. “I’ve learned how to respectfully disagree with others, and I’ve met different types of people that think in different kinds of ways.”
The big question is does Gretna Public Schools need to get more students involved with after school activities? While Gretna seemingly fosters every club under the sun, students are still allowed to create their own clubs if they find a teacher willing to sponsor them. Another resource students could look towards is the Daily Announcements page shared to students through their Classlink.
“We already have so many,” Huttmann said when asked about what clubs Gretna could benefit from. “A lot of times it’s kind of created based off of what students ask for, so it’s pretty rare that we have a student say ‘Hey, I’d really like to start a club for this.’”
Despite having solid club and sport choices for students, just over 20% of students do not participate in any of them. Outside of the school environment, according to a non-official poll of the high school with 213 respondents, some students participate in sports not offered by GHS, such as martial arts and hockey, work part-time jobs and volunteer for local communities. It is all a matter of how the student chooses to spend their time, whether in the school or not.
“Outside of school, I’m a photographer, I work at the golf course and I ride my motorcycle around,” senior Grayson Priefert said. “There’s not really a reason that I don’t do any school activities. I just don’t really enjoy them.”
