Students are beginning to become accustomed to the newest club offered at Atlantic High School–Writer’s Club. Supervised by English teacher Rachelle Lipp, Writer’s Club is an organized group focused on helping students become better writers, ignite creativity, and get to know one another through sharing work. Writer’s Club is held every Tuesday at 3:30 in Lipp’s classroom with meetings usually lasting around an hour.

During meetings, students get the chance to interact with their peers through different activities that inspire and spark creativity. They are given a topic to write on for a certain amount of time. After that, they have free will to write in whatever style they please for the rest of the time. The last ten minutes are designated for sharing, in which junior Chamilla Colton explains as “taking a moment to figure out everyone’s originality.”

Though Colton has gone to only one meeting so far, she plans to continue going and recommends the club to her peers. “If you don’t want to do it, do it anyway. You don’t have to have perfection like other artists…the paper is your canvas and all you have do is write,” said Colton.

The club was started by Lipp with the help of sophomores Clayton Jipsen and Gillian Askeland. “I wanted to start a Writer’s Club because I’ve seen some of the things people in our school can do and just like the athletic people have their sports, the writers deserve their own place to show off their skills,” said Jipsen. Describing the club as a “judge free zone,” Jipsen recommends people to come and share anything they’ve written.

Lipp first was approached by the idea to start the club last year by numerous upperclassmen, but no solid plan was ever created. After persistence from both Askeland and Jipsen, Lipp began to build a stronger structure for the group. “Gill and Clayton said we needed a place for writers to go,” said Lipp.

With help of her students, Lipp thinks the club is going to be extremely successful as she believes there are a lot of kids who would benefit from such a group. Jipsen also feels this way as he has begun taking upon himself to recruit members of AHS to join.“To join Writer’s Club all you have to do is show up in Lipp’s room after school on Tuesdays and have a ready to go attitude. P.S- There’s hot chocolate!”