Outside the curricular school day, Nueva students can seek opportunities for in-depth learning, leadership training, and personal growth. Through our robust roster of student-driven clubs and projects, Nueva children can follow a passion, learn new skills, and bond with like-minded peers. Nueva faculty members -- dedicated to providing unique, rich, and real-world opportunities to learn, and apply skills in a variety of settings -- facilitate clubs and projects. Designed to help participants maintain a lifelong interest in skill-based study, clubs are important additions to any student's time at Nueva.

Here are some examples of our offerings.

• Student Council
• Model United Nations
• Society for Protection of Environmental Welfare
• Futures
• Math Counts
• Geography Club
• Writer's Society
• Robotics

For a better idea understanding of what types of experiences students have through clubs and projects, here's a description of the Society for the Promotion of Environmental Welfare (SPEW). SPEW is a student-named, student-sponsored, student-organized, and student-directed Middle School organization that started in 2007. Through hands-on, environmentally related projects, children learn about biology, environmental science, the role of activists, public speaking, and meeting procedures, while practicing teamwork skills. In true Nueva form, students participating in SPEW drive the group's foci using the "learn by doing" philosophy.

The group's beginnings can be attributed to a Nueva student asking Middle School biology teacher Hillary Freeman if she would lead students interested in communicating to other students about the state of the environment, and engaging in projects to foster sustainable lifestyles. Once a week during lunch, classroom F101 became SPEW's headquarters. An inaugural project helped monitor energy savings of the newly constructed Hillside Complex. SPEW members pored through utilities savings reports to analyze and present to the student body.

The following year, SPEW researched fresh water availability in California. Hillary invited the mayor of Palo Alto and director of the Bay Area Tuolumne River Trust to speak to SPEW about the health of the Tuolumne River. To culminate the work, SPEW entered the National Lexus Eco Challenge contest and won first place in the West! Students documented the project and continue to pursue endeavors to protect the Tuolumne River.

Through SPEW, students develop a deeper understanding about the scarcity of water in California, and participate in the governmental decision-making process. SPEW members also learn to use technology to promote water conservation consciousness among Bay Area children.