What do bustling cities and high school clubs have in common? They both have to continually develop and grow to survive – and Geography Club is no exception. Formed in 2021 by senior Ryan Green, Geography Club is a place where people can come to have snacks, play games, meet new people, and learn about geography.

“I mainly wanted to create it to inspire the next generation of students so they could be impacted by geography,” Green said. “I just wanted to show other people that geography is something that is really interesting.”

Initially, Geography Club faced a series of issues including low attendance, sporadic scheduling and faulty technology. The latter, especially that of popular location-guessing game Geoguessr, tended to bring meetings to a screeching halt.

“Last year, the format of the club was a little weird because it was my first year doing the club, and I’d never created a club before, so we kind of [tried] a variety of things,” Green said. “Geoguessr was blocked on the school computers, which was frustrating as it caused meetings to pause for long periods of time since it was our main activity. I think a lot of people did have fun in [the club], but there was no real structure to the whole thing.”

This year, though, Green has assembled a leadership team to develop that structure. According to the club’s sponsor, social studies teacher Cami Jenschke, an officer meeting early in the year laid a strong groundwork for the club’s plans.

“[The] officers are doing a really great job of planning things and trying to make it fresh and interesting and different from last year,” Jenschke said. “It was new and we just didn’t have an idea of where we were going, but I think [the officers] sitting down at the beginning of the year about some ideas that would make it better, more interesting and more geography related has helped make it work.”

Rather than relying solely on presentations and free-for-all games, Green and his team wanted members to get involved in the action and work together to learn, and they devised three main ways to make it happen.

“The first project is basically a long term project where groups will be going against each other to gain territory in an almost Risk-style game,” Green said. “We’re going to relate it back to geography in some way. We’re still developing this idea, but we really wanted a long term game that really made people want to come back to the club. We also have an adopt-a-highway project going on, too. We wanted to do that to get some volunteer experience for people who want it, and we wanted to do something good for the environment because it’s very important to geography. The third project that we started was a map on Mrs. Jenschke’s wall, and we had people put pins in places that they’d been to and places that they want to go. It’s a really interesting thing to see.” 

So far, the group’s plans are in motion. Alongside the three projects, the club’s focus has shifted onto larger-scale member interaction as well. The club played a geography trivia game at the second meeting, and freshman and first-year member Reid Cummins got to give a presentation about his trip to Los Angeles.

“Geography Club has definitely made me more interested in geography just because the community is awesome – it’s cool to come together and be able to all chat about one certain topic,” Cummins said. “My favorite thing I’ve done was my talk about L.A., that was a lot of fun, and I’m excited for [the] upcoming Geography Bee.”

Another thing Green wanted to focus on is urban planning. A prospective urban design major himself, he said he wants to teach the group important principles he believes can be applicable in their lives.

“Urban planning [is a] term that’s been tossed around for the last 10 or 15 years, and geography is actually what inspired me to want to look into urban planning,” Green said. “I’m planning to incorporate urban planning and urban design into Geography Club by talking about some projects related to Austin, Cedar Park, Parkland and all through the [greater Austin] area that relate to urban planning, of course. [Things] like, maybe, a new development that looks like the domain in Leander – that’s what we’re currently looking at, things like that. Just so people can be informed of new developments around them.”

Green was passionate about starting the club and was persistent about it since his freshman year, according to Jenschke. An AP Human Geography teacher and softball coach, she agreed to sponsor the club because of her Human Geography experience and long time at the school.

“Ryan is awesome,” Jenschke said. “He’s so passionate about geography and urban planning, and it’s fun to watch. When [the officers] all came to my room and did that first officer meeting, there was a freshman in the room and I was like, “this is how it is.” It was kind of wild and crazy, just because the ideas were bouncing everywhere. But Ryan’s great. I think his enthusiasm is contagious.”

The club meets every other Wednesday during DEN, in Mrs. Jenschke’s room, room 2008. Their next meeting is Wednesday, Nov. 16.

“I think people should join Geography Club to broaden their range of interests,” Green said. “Let’s say you have no interest in geography at all – just come to the club, and see that Geography Club and geography are really awesome. I think you’ll learn something if you come, and I think you won’t regret it.”