According to freshman Gabe Kaplan, co-leader and founder of the Democrats club, the club has greatly evolved throughout the year.

“At the beginning we didn’t really have a clear idea of what we were going to do at our meetings or in general throughout the year,” Kaplan said. “But as the year moved on we realized that it was going to be a lot of discussions about politics and learning where other people stood. And just talking about different opinions and arguments.”

Kaplan said he was proud of the speed in which the club materialized.

“I was really glad that we were able to get it started, just because I didn’t realize the deadline at the beginning of the year, which was mid-December, and I only had a week to get it assembled and get it founded with me and get 15 members,” Kaplan said.

Freshman and Democrats member Tamar Gewirtz said at the beginning of the year there were a couple factors incentivizing her to join the club

“I have a great interest in the whole idea behind [the Democrats club] and I’m a Democrat. Gabe, when he started it was asking me if he had my support and I said yes,” Gewirtz said. “It was a combination of supporting that and also just being active in the [Democratic] community.”

Gewirtz said her favorite memory of the club this past year was when they did learning online.

“We once stayed after and did some Kahoots. We did one educational one on past presidents and political issues and the rest of the Kahoots were just fun and after we ate some good food,” Gewirtz said.

Kaplan said an improvement he wants to make next year is to publicize the club more so it can gain new members.

“I’d like to establish [the club] more in the school. I don’t feel like that many people at school actually know that the club exists or that it has regular meetings, except for at the end of the year,” Kaplan said. “I’d also like to get better membership, because this year was really just getting started and had most of the same members throughout the entire year.”

Gewirtz said being in the Democrats club helped her define her own opinions on political matters.

“I think if anything, my new points on many topics have gotten stronger, because when you talk to other people and they have the same views, it solidifies your own,” Gewirtz said.

Kaplan said overall he was most proud of establishing and growing the club.

“I think this was a very good year—getting it founded and then just establishing it and getting core members. That was the most essential part of what I wanted us to do this year and I was able to achieve that,” Kaplan said.

Gewirtz said she would like to see the amount of membership for the club next year increase.

“I think they should get the word out more and try to recruit more people, because I’m not sure how many people there are, but I don’t think it’s a lot. It’s not really a wide variety of people, it’s mainly people that we all already know,” Gewirtz said.

Gewirtz said she hopes the club thrives and expands next year.

“I hope that they will get more people and I hope that it’s still going well and that they get more ideas and try to do more things,” Gewirtz said.

Kaplan said next year he hopes the club can do politic-related activities outside of school.

“[I want the club] lobbying and possibly going on field trips, which we didn’t do this year, but hopefully next year we can go to the State Capital with the rest of the Minnesota High School Democrats and do lobbying there,” Kaplan said.