Contributing writer Caroline investigates three new clubs at Hockaday. Students will soon see meetings announcements around campus.

Flash Mob:

Sarah came up with the idea for the Flash Mob club last Christmas as she watched a news feature on TV, which covered a local flash mob’s unexpected performance of Christmas songs in Nordstrom’s at Northpark.  The expressions on the shoppers’ faces, she remembers, were “very funny” and the idea of participating in a similar type of performance—what she describes as a “real life musical”—fascinated her, prompting her to form the Hockaday Flash Mob.

With the help of Ms. Bonnie Jean, the Flash Mob Club will “learn dances and spontaneously perform them around school, Northpark and other public places.”

Sarah also hopes to have a couple of “silent dance parties” here at Hockaday. Participants will plug in their iPods, select the same song, and all hit play at the same time, the effect being a synchronized dance party, but apparently to no music.

Love Is Louder:

“Love is Louder,” a campaign started by actress Brittany Snow and The Jed Foundation, an organization that works to reduce emotional distress and prevent suicide among college students, in response to the September 2010 suicides, an epidemic of 16 suicides by teenage boys across the nation, strives to provide support for those who feel “mistreated, misunderstood, or isolated” ( www.loveislouder.com ). Sydney first heard of “Love is Louder” over the summer, when a musician visiting her church promoted the movement. She decided to involve the Hockaday community in the campaign by forming a “Love is Louder” club.

Throughout the year, Sydney plans for her club to “discuss matters such as depression and suicide, as well as other similar teen issues that raise awareness and unify the school.”

North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad:

While researching Science Olympiad online, Rebecca  stumbled across the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad. The organization and the types of problems on the NACLO tests captivated her interest, prompting her to form a Hockaday club devoted to studying computational linguistics and preparing members for the Computational Linguistics Olympiad competition.

She describes computational linguistics as logic puzzles and problem solving. “It mainly deals with word structure, language structures and relationships between languages.”

The main goal of the club is to prepare for the two rounds of NACLO competition, which will take place in February and March. During meetings, club members, currently numbering at around 20, will practice problems from the test and discuss strategies for solving the various types of problems.

– Caroline