Stuck in the deserts of Africa, or Mexico, or maybe even Arizona, junior Ryan Green and a group of his close friends try their hardest to figure out where they’ve been randomly dropped off using nothing but the geographical landmarks around them. Luckily, after collaborating together they managed to type in the correct answer and win another round of GeoGuessr.

After many rounds of this online geography game, Green had the idea to share his passion for exploring the many areas of the world and the feeling of collaborating as a team with people of all sorts, thus creating  the official Geography Club. What started back in September has grown ever since, and every other Thursday, group members join together to learn more about the environments around them in a more laid-back environment free of stress, according to junior and vice president Jackson Woods. Although being a newer club that was introduced this year, officers collaborate to come up with new activities at every meeting for members to enjoy.

“Geography club is an opportunity for everyone here to learn more about the world that we live in and expand their horizons beyond Cedar Park,” Woods said. “We learn a lot about the different climates, landscapes and areas of every different country around the world, it’s pretty cool.”

The club mainly focuses on geography and learning more about different environments, but it also offers a place to socialize with new people, according Green. The club is has a more relaxed experience that allows a more comfortable environment for those nervous to join other clubs.

“I’m glad it’s more stress-free because really a club shouldn’t be like a thing that you want to join so it looks good for colleges,” Green said. “I wanted it to be something that you genuinely enjoy and enjoy going to and not be something stressful during your school day.”

The goal for the club was to provide a way for students to learn more about the world around them with interactive games and fun activities, according to Green. But many members said they came for the geography and stayed for the relaxing and welcoming nature of the group. 

“The initial goal [of the club] is to get more people excited about geography because I guess it’s kind of like a stigma that Americans are bad at geography, which is kind of true,” Green said. “I just wanted more people to get excited about geography and if it wasn’t laid back then it wouldn’t be as exciting and not as many people would show up.”

Just like any other club, they always make sure to have something new for their members, whether new or returning, according to a member of the club Junior Taylor Shatto. The activities range from interactive to collaborative with the occasional geography game and art project.

“At the beginning of each meeting, we do a slideshow and it has a question and you have to guess what place it is based on the information,” Shatto said. “The questions for the slideshows are usually guessing, which I guess is kind of like GeoGuessr, the thing we do the most, but that’s kind of what helps us learn most about geography, having us use these clues to figure out places. Along with the slideshows and playing GeoGuessr we also have drawing contests of different countries and fun activities like making flags for imaginary countries, it’s always fun.”

Officer positions play a big role in the club and help out with keeping the club running smoothly. With positions such as historian and vice president, junior Sarah Vorndran and Woods are in charge of keeping track of what activities are well-liked in order to keep a new feel to every meeting and helping the president in any way they can with planning out meetings. 

“As vice president, my job mainly is to assist Ryan in making slideshows and if he needs help getting anything for the meeting I help him out with that,” Woods said. “I’m basically his glorified assistant with the title vice president.”

Along with helping with the planning part of the club, officers also help advertise the club to help with reaching a broader audience, according to Woods. Things like T-shirts and posters in the halls help, but social media is the thing that brings in the most members.

“We have this humongous group chat for geography club members,” Woods said. “And friends add friends who add other friends, so I think it’s like over 50 kids in this group chat and that’s kind of how we mainly get the word around. I think we have a couple of posters too we have shirts we wear sometimes so people can see we’re an actual club.”

Members are equally involved in club activities as well.  According to Vorndran, the people involved in the club are what makes it so different from all the rest, the wide variety of members and the come and go style of the meetings is the vital part in making Geography Club something to look forward to.  

“[Geography Club] gives people a chance to get to know a lot of other people who they usually wouldn’t be friends with,” Vorndran said. “A lot of the time when you go into geography club you see a bunch of people in different friend groups and different activities around the school that you would never think would hang out together so doing clubs like this lets the people get to know other people.”

Geography Club is always ready to welcome new members to their meetings held every other Thursday in room 2008. The club accepts everyone and encourages new members to come see what the club is all about. 

“Literally anybody can join,” Woods said. “If you’re interested in geography join it doesn’t matter who you are and it’s fun too it’s in the middle of our school days and is an opportunity to hang out with your friends and learn a little about the world around us and just have fun.”