The Acclivity Club held its first meeting on Thursday, Sept. 9, in room D014, from 3:35 to 4:45 pm. Acclivity is State High’s writing club and has been around since the ’70s, where it started as a literary magazine where students published short writings. The club has since expanded to become a general writing club, where any writing, whether for the magazine or not, is encouraged.

Last year, Acclivity met online. Not everyone was happy with this, including club advisor Mr. McConkey, who teaches 9th grade English at State College Area High School.

“Last year we were remote with the meetings, and that made it particularly challenging,” McConkey said. “But this year, with us being back in person, it’s a great opportunity, even just being in proximity of other writers, I feel is nice.”

McConkey plans to work with the students to publish a physical copy of “The Literary Magazine,” this year, which is a collection of writings from State College students that were fully virtual last year. 

McConkey’s biggest goal for the club, in general, is for the students to decide what they want to do with their time.

“It’s so open in the free-form. Because I’m still so new, there’s not a lot of traditions, so to speak, so there’s a lot of ways that we can kind of change the club, or really allow the members to kind of craft the future of it,” McConkey said.

The club’s first meeting included a basic introduction to the club and a writing activity. The students pushed the tables into a circle and took a seat, each getting a blank piece of paper. Their task was to write the first sentence of a story, then pass the paper to the person next to them, who would write the next sentence. Then, before the second person could give the paper to the third person, they had to fold the paper, so that the first line was hidden, and the third person had to read and respond to the second sentence entirely out of context, and so on. This resulted in much laughter, as the stories were read out loud toward the end.

“COVID’s been a new experience,” said Anne Bolton, a junior who’s been in the club since freshman year. “This is the first group project we’ve done.”

“It was a lot of fun,” freshman Ellie Kaufman said about the first meeting. “I really enjoyed the activity; I always like doing stories like that.”

“If you want to come in and talk to other writers and collaborate, that works. If you want to write in the corner and talk to no one, that works too. This club is for you guys,” McConkey said. 

Acclivity Club typically meets every week on Thursdays, from 3:35 to 4:45. Their meetings currently consist of activities, group discussions, and private writing time.