Through senior Kimia Sabdar and sophomore Ema Stojanovic’s leadership as co-presidents, the Psychology Club at Woodbridge High aims to provide the most interesting, relevant and applicable aspects of the Advanced Placement Psychology (AP Psych) curriculum without the homework or grades attached to it. 

Sabdar and a couple of her friends got the idea to create this club while reflecting on their future interests in psychology as they progressed through AP Psych.

“I was talking with some of my friends in the class and I realized they kind of want to major in psychology as well, so I thought making a club at school would be a good opportunity for them to learn more about it, beyond what’s inside the classroom,” Sabdar said. 

One of these founding friends is senior Sarah Shelly, who played a key role in starting the club alongside Sabdar and is now vice president of the club. 

“For our first meeting, we talked about what we can do with a psychology major… and then, in our other meetings we have basically just chosen psychological disorders like schizophrenia or split-personality, and we create a presentation and we basically inform all the members in our club what it is,” Shelly said. “In the future, we are planning on bringing in speakers who are psychologists or therapists to share their experience as well.”

Essentially, the psychology club is an opportunity for all students, whether they are certain they want to study psychology for the rest of their life or have no idea what psychology is, to learn about relevant issues in the field. For some, this would be best achieved through taking AP Psych at Woodbridge High, where students can go more in-depth on the complex nature of how the brain works and how to apply this knowledge to their everyday life. 

However, for others who may not have the time in their schedule or the willingness to take on a rigorous AP course, the Psychology Club provides a low-stress, supportive group of students who just want to take 35 minutes during lunch each month to learn something new. 

“If I wanted to join the psychology class that Woodbridge [High] offers, it would’ve been so much studying, but [the club can] kind of do the same thing for no grade. If you’re interested in [psychology] and want to learn about it, [our club] offers that,” senior member Sarah Daker said. 

Additionally, the benefit of learning in a club environment is that it is all student-led and discussion-based, allowing everyone to grow and learn together. Even those involved in leadership roles in the club are able to benefit.

“This is also a way for us to learn more and we wanted to spread that to other people on campus who also want to learn more about psychology,” Shelly said. “It was just our basic interest in psychology that kind of started this.”

Sometimes, a supportive environment is all that is needed to facilitate growth and an eventual love for a subject. For those that are interested in joining or learning more about the Psychology Club, meetings are once a month in Mr. Leckey’s room, G105, and you can join the Remind using code “@fe7fb4k.”

“I really want to make people interested in the topic because sometimes, AP Psych or psychology in general just seems a bit intimidating,” Sabdar said. “I hope this club kind of just helps people get interested in it.”