With the coming of the new school year also comes new clubs.

This year, Bellaire welcomed around 30 new clubs to its expanding list. With the increase of new clubs, it opens a door for new activities and opportunities for students.

Aviation Club

The Aviation Club meets in Room 3715 on Wednesdays and primarily focuses on teaching students about the operational aspects of aviation — the study of aircrafts in our atmosphere — as well as mastering aspects like turning, landing and the forces of flight, primarily through gliders (engineless aircraft). President and junior Benjamin Kotlyar hopes to ignite a spark of passion in students.

“We plan to actually get a lot more people signed up with the Soaring Club of Houston and other aviation clubs around Houston,” Kotlyar said. “Our goal is to get more people involved with actually learning to fly, [achieving] their licenses and student-led licenses and their cross-country goals.”

Soaring Club of Houston, Houston’s glider club, offers services where students can sign up and train at their own pace. However, at school, Kotlyar opts to use simulators such, with equipment like a joystick and rudder pedals.

“This equipment is actually something I donated for myself,” Kotlyar said. “I paid for this almost three years ago, before I even really started my serious aviation goals, just because I thought gliders are very neat and interesting.”

While aviation training can be difficult to maintain, Kotlyar said he believes that mastering aviation truly pays off in the end.

“I really feel like people should give aviation a chance. It is something that is very niche and hard to maintain, but if you really start to look into it, you can see how enjoyable it can be to learn about all these concepts and to really fly for yourself,” Kotlyar said.

Model United Nations

Meeting in Room 3719 on Tuesdays, Model UN simulates the United Nations by having students represent delegates from different countries, debating global issues to draft resolutions that both solve the problem and keep your interests in mind. In his efforts to restart the club, Treasurer and junior Diego Herrejon-Trevino hopes to bring more people into the club.

“We’re going to start our very first simulation of the year,” Herrejon-Trevino said. “What we’ve done is we’re starting on a smaller level, and we are taking on different positions around the Texas phone ban bill, taking on the roles of students, parents and administrators.”

While the first simulation will be focused on a local issue, Herrejon-Trevino said that they will eventually move onto global issues as they prepare to attend conferences — events where students represent UN countries — in the future.

“By at least the end of next semester, we’re hoping to attend at least one major conference,” Herrejon-Trevino said. “The way it works is that there’s a best delegate award for conferences that usually goes to the person who sort of takes the lead without completely dominating the debate.”

Herrejon-Trevino hopes that Model UN will help bring students together who have a common interest of trying to resolve issues around the world.

“It’s really to help students develop skills and things like diplomacy, public speaking, critical thinking, as well as global awareness,” Herrejon-Trevino said. “But it’s also about encouraging the students to be collaborative and respectful and have respectful debates on international issues.”

War Hammer Alliance

A club dedicated to creating an environment to play Warhammer, a tabletop roleplay game (RPG) that simulates fantasy battles in a future world, the Warhammer Alliance meets every Friday both during lunch and after school in Room 2735.

“You buy plastic miniatures that you build. Then you paint [and] simulate fantasy battles with them,” junior and Vice President Quillan Thurmond said. “In the version we play, we play Warhammer 40,000, which takes place in a distant future, rather than a fantasy world.”

Because the cost of miniatures and resources can get quite expensive, the club aims to help provide an environment where players can still play without going bankrupt.

“The things we focus on in our club are playing the game and providing opportunities to play for people [who] don’t have their own stuff, opportunities [for] people to build miniatures, to paint miniatures, and to discuss the lore,” Thurmond said.

President and junior Andrew Van Auken decided to start the club partially due to the lack of clubs similar to Warhammer at Bellaire with activities like tabletop games and painting.

“The primary thing we hope to accomplish with the club is get people more interested in tabletop war games,” Van Auken said. “It’s a very community-based hobby, so the more people we get into it, the more we can share our love for the game.”

Thurmond sees Fridays as time after school to relax, play some games with his friends and have some time to himself to paint.

“For me, the [best] opportunity is being able to play the game and talk to people about lore,” Thurmond said. “That’s the big part that I really like.”

To stay updated about Aviation Club’s meetings, join its Remind @avibhs or follow its Instagram @bhs.aviation. To be informed about Model UN’s future events, join its Remind @modunbhs or follow its Instagram @model_unbhs. To learn more about Warhammer Alliance, join its Remind @bhswarall or its Instagram @bhs.warhammer.