New Generation of Teens Fueling Growth in Clubs

'Play-Date' Kids Seek Bonding, Structure

Sophomore Robin Wilke, 15, is involved with, by her count, 16 clubs and organizations at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda. And, she said, she isn't just a name on a membership list. She participates.

At the University of Virginia, freshman Amber McCrady, 18, has signed up for the Salsa Club and at least five other groups.

Junior Max Ace, 16, just started the Philosophy Club, one of 27 organizations that have sprung to life since Briar Woods High School opened this fall in Ashburn. That's more than one club for every 18 students, with more clubs forming all the time, said Activity Director Mark Patterson.

At a time when sociologists bemoan how disconnected Americans are from one another and how traditional associations are withering, young people in the so-called millennial generation are showing new interest in forming bonds through clubs and other organizations, said administrators, teachers and students.

Through a combination of societal and personal factors, people born since the early 1980s are not only largely goal-oriented, sociologists say, but also more communal than their predecessors in Generation X, in part because their lives have been highly structured.

"This is the play-date generation," said Judith Kidd, associate dean of student life and activities for Harvard College at Harvard University. "Things are always arranged, very much so. It's also a driven generation. They don't know what to do with downtime. They come to campus with day planners."

Furthermore, the kinds of groups that are proliferating -- public service organizations and cultural and ethnic groups, for example -- reveal new patterns of interest, as well as a greater trust in public institutions than earlier generations, administrators and students say.

"Members of this generation are joiners," said R. Alan Leffers, dean of students at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, "and it is less about simply focusing on a career; they are looking for some meaning in their life."

Clubs, with their open enrollments, and organizations such as honor societies, which often are restricted, have long been staples of school life. But their popularity has risen and fallen, depending upon the times. Some in the so-called slacker generation of the 1990s saw school clubs as too establishment. Now things are changing.

"The basic trend for student organizations has been more, more, more," said Marisa Tjerandsen, assistant director of student involvement with George Washington University's student activities center.

In 2001-02, GWU had 200 registered groups. Last year, there were 380, and more than 400 are expected by the end of the school year.

Harvard students who like tiddlywinks have a society just for them. For those seeking someone to dance with, countless school clubs concentrate on the waltz, salsa and most other kinds of dances. There are drama clubs and sailing groups, skiing associations and debate societies -- the list is endless.