Wandering the halls before Thursday’s classes, you may stumble upon City High students discussing psychology purely out of interest in the subject. Throughout the year, the club’s leaders present on various psychology topics, all with a side of donuts for those attending meetings to enjoy.
“Maddee and I make lessons the night before, [of] really whatever we want; the topics are really broad because you can relate psych back to anything,” Eviann Smith ’24 said.
Psychology Club Co-Presidents Smith and Maddee Kramer ‘24 encourage input from those coming to meetings about what they want to learn about and discuss in the future. Already, the club’s meetings have covered a wide range of topics, from serial killers to why people make bad decisions, tying it all back to psychology.
The two seniors took AP Psychology last year as juniors, and it was in the same year that they both got involved with Psychology Club, with some influence from their friends Greta Stanier and Ari Collins (‘23), who were the previous club presidents.
A usual meeting for Psych Club starts at 8:15 on Thursday mornings in Psych Teacher Travis Carlson’s room (2311). Kramer and Smith present on that week’s topic, often including a video or other interactive activity.
“I really look forward to being interactive; I think that’s one of our goals. If we’re just standing there yapping at you, it’s like we’re literally in a psychology class, and that’s not fun. So we try to make it interactive,” Kramer said.
In some meetings, the presidents try to align what they talk about with the upcoming AP Psychology exams, often seeing a higher student turnout. With experience taking AP Psychology, they understand the difficult nature of the higher-level class and the tests that come with it.
This year, an additional project for the club will be expanding on the one-year-old mural in the back of Carlson’s classroom.
“Last year, we had to redo the whole thing because we moved classrooms, so that was a big thing. That took a little bit, but I think we’ll add more different, symbolic terms [this year],” Smith said.
As the year goes on, Kramer and Smith hope to expand club size and have more students get involved. Many students currently attending club meetings do not have room in their schedules for a psychology course or are underclassmen wanting to get a feel for the content of future psychology classes. The club leaders highlight that anyone is welcome to join and feel there is a lot one can gain from the club’s meetings.
“I would like some more people to come. We put in the work the night before, like an hour of planning. So it’d be nice to get some people to come to reciprocate [that],” Smith said.
Moving on to higher education, both Kramer and Smith are interested in continuing to learn about psychology through classes in the colleges and universities they will attend.
Psychology club meets on Thursdays before school at 8:15 in room 2311. Kramer and Smith also like to spread the word about the club and encourage students to keep up with its happenings on their club Instagram account (@cityhighpsychclub).
