Humanities Club, A Christian Youth Group, and a Dungeons and Dragons club: they don’t seem to have anything in common except for one teacher. Colin Syler connects every one of these unique clubs. These clubs bring very different and diverse groups of people like kids in choir, football players, and students who just really enjoy American pop culture.
Syler has really shown the love he has for every group. He even hung every poster of every club he was involved in in the hallway next to his room where everyone could see.
“I heard about Dungeons and Dragons club through a flyer next to Mr. Syler’s room,” sophomore Ellie Dimovski said. “I’m really excited and really nervous.”
These clubs have really begun to gain attraction not just because of the beloved AP Government teacher but also the things that they promise. The Youth Group promises to those who are Christians that they have a place to speak about the thing they feel very strongly about.
“We just preach that Jesus is love,” senior Landen Maffetone said. “We want everybody to be loved like Jesus loves people and we hope that maybe, when we’re writing this and we’re giving our message, that whoever walks in this door didn’t know Jesus’s love before gets introduced.”
Syler began sponsoring the club when teacher John See stopped teaching at Utica due to complications. He ended up taking on the mantel adding to another safe space for students after school.
“One of the biggest difficulties was finding a sponsor: but luckily for us, Mr. See volunteered himself when we first started,” Maffetone said. “Then along the way, we picked up some other teachers who support us, like Mr. Syler is now one of our sponsors. Our two main sponsors are Mr. See and Mr. Syler, and we have other people that come in, sometimes teachers, to watch. But at first it was definitely like, who? Am I going to have to sponsor this group?”
The Humanities Club is the newest of the bunch as it started on September 30th, 2024. Both Syler and a new teacher at Utica, Antony Nedanovski, run this club allowing anyone and everyone to join at any time. The club involves an alternating schedule between watching movies one week and creating playlists the next.
“The idea of Humanities Club seemed interesting,” senior Charlie Dobson said, “and it seemed like a fun low effort extracurricular to take up my free time.”
Many students spoke about how the club felt very comfortable just due to the way the club was portrayed.
“I wanted to join mostly because I’m bored,” senior Samantha Cross said. “I picked this club specifically because I love watching movies and listening to music. It just overall seems like a chill vibe making conversation with people like me.”
Having a new club like this meant that the students involved had to truly care about the subjects of the Humanities club to get it going. The students had shown on that first day how much they care that there was finally a club like this.
“My passion and love for music got me into this club,” senior Jalyssa Hash said. “Seeing Chaos and Carnage in concert really created a connection between me and Metal.”
Speaking of Chaos, the afore-mentioned Dungeons and Dragons Club solely run by Syler and senior Arianna Garza, has finally moved to a concrete place this year, in Syler’s very own classroom. It seems they are running the club the same as last year, only with more points for wisdom.
“You can’t really do a functional DND session with more than seven or eight people,” Syler said. “You kind of have to break into small groups so everyone can have their moment to shine.”
In the end, it seems that Syler is here to help students to “have their moments to shine” as he said. With the help of other teachers and students who trust him, he has really created a long resume proving that there is always something in school a student can enjoy.
