Clubs

Academic Clubs

The French Club annually attends the state convention, ALCFES, rotating its sites in Lafayette, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where they tour the French area of the city, have a historical scavenger hunt and eat at the French Market. During the year members participate in cheese tasting, chocolate tasting, the CHS/SJA King Cake party and pastry tasting meetings.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderators: Kari Canizaro and Margarita Ramos-Grasa

Mock Trial

Mock Trial focuses their effort on Mock Trial competitions. The Mock Trial teams worked with volunteer attorney coaches preparing a fictional case to try at the District Tournament sponsored by the Louisiana Bar Association. The club participates in the St. Jude Give Thanks Walk as its service project.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderators: Judy Chapoy, Katie May, and Michael Vincent

Mu Alpha Theta

In the Fall, Catholic High School Mu Alpha Theta students host the Junior High Math Tournament, which draws over 300 students from local Catholic elementary schools. In the spring, Mu Alpha Theta members host the Annual High School Math Tournament. The club also attended numerous tournaments during the year culminating with its participation in State Convention in April.

Eligible: Students in grades 8-12 enrolled in honors-level or advanced mathematics classes.
Moderators: Nancy Patout and Peggy Patout

National Honor Society

The National Honor Society has spearheaded the CHS Christmas Toy Drive for the past several years by gathering and purchasing toys for underprivileged children. They also provided workers for the CHS Habitat Build, acted as ushers for various CHS events throughout the school year and served as tutors for students who need additional academic help. NHS has contributed financially to their annual philanthropies including Cystic Fibrosis, Podcasts for Peace (Nicaragua), Warrick Dunn Charities, Red Sweater Project (Africa), Baton Rouge Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Boys Hope, Literacy Awareness, Muscular Dystrophy, Louisiana School for the Deaf, and many others.

Eligible: Students in grades 11 and 12 with a 3.8 weighted cumulative GPA are invited to membership.
Moderators: , Robin Davis, Jami Hayes, and Charles Jumonville

Quiz Bowl

Do you enjoy competition, trivia, and working as a team? Then Quiz Bowl is the right group! Quiz Bowl allows students to come together for tournament-style play of answering trivia questions as a team, allowing them to develop their knowledge as well as leadership and teamwork skills. Members also get to participate in tournaments against other schools, and in the first two years of its existence, the team advanced to the National High School Quiz Bowl Tournament in Atlanta, Georgia.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Tim Chustz '96 and Robin Davis

Science Club

The Science Club spent this past year focusing on exploring science concepts in fun ways, interacting with professionals in the various science fields, and giving back to the community through fundraising for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. They have also focused on our community by studying conservation of our wetlands. They have studied biology through anatomy by dissection of brains and hearts, pheromone influence on behavior, and plant growth as well as projectile design and motion with rocketry.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Jessica Umlang

Spanish Club

The purpose of Spanish Club is to provide opportunities outside of the classroom for those interested in the Spanish language and culture, participate in activities and meet other students. Additionally, the club honors the importance of helping the community by participating in service projects as Food Bank and Christmas Cards for Children’s Hospitals. By joining the Spanish Club, you can celebrate Hispanic holidays, learn about different customs, and experience the food, music and art of Spanish-speaking countries.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Daniel Bordelon and Susana Costela

Youth and Government

Catholic High School students participate in the Youth and Government Conference in mid-February held in Baton Rouge. Students attend committee meetings held at Baton Rouge Magnet High School and spend an entire day debating their bills in chamber at the Louisiana State Capitol. The club also raised funds to support the Youth in Government State Project on Autism and the Catholic High School Habitat for Humanity Build.

Eligible: Grades 9-12
Moderators: Jarrod Quebodeaux and Chris Wynne

Athletic Clubs

Beach Volleyball

Intramural Sports

Ultimate Frisbee

The Ultimate Team is an athletic club whose members play the sport commonly known as Ultimate Frisbee. The Ultimate Team competes against high school and college teams from across the country. The team travels regionally and nationally for competition. In 2017, the team won the national championship.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Marshall Gates '04 and Taylor Messenger ’94

Arts

Art

Members of the Art Club experiment with different media to create art. Specific activities include designing and painting the backdrops for homecoming pictures and setting up the annual Art Show. In addition, the Art Club designs and paints the Spirit Banner for Challenge. The Art Club’s service project involves assisting needy children in the community at either Christmas or Easter.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Edith Thornton and Claudia Rumfola

Band

The band program includes marching band, jazz band, and concert bands. The Bruin Marching Band is comprised of 125 musicians and dancers from Catholic High School and St. Joseph’s Academy. Additionally, the band combines with the choir program to present A Candlelight Christmas held annually at LSU. The concert ensembles and the Jazz Band perform at various concerts and festivals throughout the school year, including the LMEA District IV Large Ensemble Assessment.

Enrollment in any band class satisfies STREAM certificate requirements. As one of the largest organizations on campus the members of the Bruin Band also participate in numerous sports, include engineering students, student ministers, frequently attain national merit status, and represent the student body in leadership throughout campus.

Band Director: Duane LeBlanc
Assistant Band Directors: Ben Buller

Eligible: CHS and SJA students in grades 8-12.

Moderators: Scott Manning ’01 and Patrick Dulaney ‘92

Bruinettes Moderators: Caroline Batsche, Jaime Olinde, and Amy Owenby

Choir

The choir continues its tradition of excellence as evidenced by the number of All-State Choir participants and the number of students selected to the District Honor Choir and the Louisiana Chapter of the American Choral Director’s Honor Choir. The chorus has consistently won the Sweepstakes trophies in the state and district choral festivals, and they perform at various functions at Catholic High School, St. Joseph’s Academy and within the community. The choir has been invited to participate in Disney’s Candlelight Processional at Epcot and has performed numerous times in the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City under the direction of world-renowned choral conductors. The group was also invited in 2015 to sing in Rome at the Sistine Chapel.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderators: Stephen Galliano and
Assistant Director Danielle Laird

Drama Club

The Catholic High School/ St. Joseph’s Academy Drama Club members share their talents both on and off stage. In addition to committing countless hours to their productions in the fall and spring, our actors serve the community by adopting families at Christmas and hosting the Talent Show to benefit charity.

Eligible: CHS and SJA students in grades 8-12.
Moderators: Anna Schittone, Mary Kathryn Layne, and Kayleigh Smith

Junior Classical League

The Junior Classical League encourages an interest in and an appreciation of Latin and classical antiquity. Members participate in several notable events such as the Catholic High School Latin Prayer and Carol Service, LJCL Fall Forum, and a laser tag fundraiser. Committed to service, JCL also participated in Bowl for Hope and the St. Jude Walk. Members of JCL attended State Convention in March and several members will attend National Convention this summer at Emory University in Atlanta.

Eligible: Students in grades 8-12 currently enrolled in Latin or students who have completed Latin II.
Moderators: Mitch Arcenaux and Ryan Carruth

Liturgy Singers

Photography Club

Photography Club members meet every Monday after school to plan picture-taking assignments for the week. They photograph all student activities and events for school publications and social media posts. After school, students crop and correct their digital pictures on computers in the lab before they distributed. Also, the club posts photos online, making them available for viewing and purchase. For their service project, members go to Southdowns School and help with several of their student events each year. Part of the Photo Club’s service to Southdowns includes taking and printing photos of these events for the school. One of the major fundraisers is CHS Grandparents Day where the club takes photos of grandsons with their grandparents and sell them online to help purchase new equipment.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderators: Brad Messina and Adriane Metz

Campus Leadership

Honor Board

Student Ambassadors

The mission of the Student Ambassadors is to serve Catholic High School in the process of recruiting of new students. The Student Ambassadors became an official club in the 2007-2008 school year. Ambassadors assist the school by playing various roles in the admissions process and participate in many service projects during the year.

Eligible: Students in grades 9-12 with one year of CHS experience.
Moderators: Collin Ford '98, Sherie LeBlanc, and Robin Talamo

Student Council

Raising school spirit, planning events to involve more students, and participating in more service projects are a few of the goals of the Student Council. Each year Student Council sponsors dances, pep rallies,“Bear Camp” and an orientation program for incoming eighth and ninth-graders on their first day of school. Other activities include Homecoming Week activities, as well as Student Council Week and the Catholic High School/ St. Joseph’s Academy Challenge. The council members attend district, state and regional conventions. The club was elected state parliamentarian and District III treasurer for 2013. The council also provides financial assistance for the student activities, the National Honor Society Toy Drive and the LASC state charity.

Eligible: Grades 8-12 – election by class vote.
Moderators: Fiona Conroy and Drew Losavio '98

Faith

Christian Service Club

Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA)

Each year, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes holds a spirited X-Box NCAA Football Tournament. Throughout the fall, members participate in “Pick the Score” contests involving LSU Football Games. During the year, the club collects donations from its members at each meeting for the St. Vincent De Paul Pharmacy. They also participate in an annual Car Wash each spring to benefit a member of the Baton Rouge community in need. The FCA closes out the school year with its annual Crawfish Boil in April.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderators: Jake Clouatre and Matt Shelton

Student Ministry

The Catholic High School Student Ministers strive to nourish the spiritual life of the student body and shape the school culture in a positive manner. The year begins with a summer training workshop with students from Brother Martin, E.D. White, St. Stanislaus, St. Scholastica Academy and Vandebilt. Throughout the year, student ministers serve as liturgical ministers, mentors to the eighth and ninth graders through monthly meetings, ministers at school retreats and leaders of morning prayer. They meet monthly to plan upcoming events and celebrate Mass. Additionally, they staff eighth grade retreats for Catholic elementary schools.

Eligible: Grades 11 and 12
Moderators: Mitch Arceneaux, Patrick Dulaney '92, Mary Kathryn Layne, Scott Losavio '95, Trey Poche, Bella Rawls and Pegeen Romero

Personal Interest

Bears in the Wild

The mission behind Bears in the Wild is to connect students who love the outdoors. Bears on the Wild plans monthly outings like hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, and rock climbing. We also participate in service projects which include activities such as cleaning up parks, trail maintenance, and volunteering at local races.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Shelley Vance and Marshall Gates '04

Board Games Club

Chess Club

The Chess Club gives Catholic High students and faculty an opportunity to play friendly games of chess in a low-stress environment. Students use this ancient game to build skills that are relevant in the classroom and life. The club meets in the library after school on several days throughout the week. The Chess Club hopes to compete in several tournaments in Baton Rouge and around the state this year. If you are interested in honing your skills or just learning an entertaining, new strategic game, come to the library to check, mate.

“Come follow me, and I will make you a Fischer of men…”

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Anna Schittone

Cinema Club

The Cinema Club is open to any student in grades 8-12 who shares a passion for film. Members of the Cinema Club gather monthly to watch a film that falls under a particular genre determined by the club officers. Five films within a genre are chosen and voted on by all of the club members. Two days are scheduled to view the film. On the first day, the film is introduced to the members, facts are discussed about the film, and the members have an opportunity to share anything about the particular film with each other. After viewing a film, members of the club discuss it and opinions are shared.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Chris Wynne

eSports Club

The Esports Club aims to foster a community where members can participate in competitive or casual video game tournaments against other participating schools. This group seeks to provide an opportunity where students can learn communication and strategy skills that promote teamwork, sportsmanship, and creativity while remaining true to the traditions and teachings of Catholic High School and the Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

Eligible Students: Grades 8-12
Moderators: Judy Chapoy and Dan Bourgeois '97

Games Club

Several times a month, students from different corners of the campus gather to fight evildoers of this world and worlds unknown. The Games Club members enter to match wits in a series of strategic thinking and concentration games as well as video games. These warriors come and go from week to week, but there is a strong camaraderie felt by all.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Michael Vincent

Grizzly Hospitality Group

The objective of the Grizzly Hospitality Group is to teach students all aspects of the restaurant and hospitality business including restaurant concept building, service and culinary job training, menu building, marketing, human resources, and budgeting. Ultimately, the group hopes to inspire creativity, initiative, and a passion for food and entrepreneurship.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Adina Gherardini and Niomi Krzystowczyk

Habitat for Humanity

Investors Club

The CHS Investors Club helps students gain a better understanding of how the stock market works and how to invest money through different means. This group meets twice a month. Meetings consist of a variety of guest speakers with expertise in investment strategies, tax law, real estate, and retirement planning. Club members also share with the group their own personal investment strategies, including traditional investment through stocks, as well as securities trading.

Eligible: 8-12 graders
Moderators: Shelley Reinecke and Jennifer Thibodeaux

Science and Engineering

Bear Bots Robotics Club

Bear Bots is a year-round competitive robotics team with a concentration on smaller robots. Our eighth grade competes with Lego Mindstorms, while the high school students compete with Parallax Boe-Bots and VEX EDR robots. Students work in teams to design, build and program robots to achieve goals set out for each competition. The robots are programmed to sense the environment and react to various stimuli.

Catholic High School hosts three RARC Robotics Competitions open to grades 3-12 throughout the year. These competitions are sponsored by NICERC, the National Integrated Cyber Education Research Center. Participation from public and private schools increased exponentially in its first year.

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Sheri Schoonmaker and Melissa Khallaf

Bear Metal Robotics Club

Science Club

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Jessica Shelton

Student Media

The Bruin Yearbook

For more than 70 years, the Bruin has kept a record of the people and events at Catholic High School. The staff’s hard work and creativity has consistently earned several awards for its layout, photography and feature stories at the Louisiana Scholastic Press Association convention at LSU. The Bruin staff serves the community by participating in Habitat for Humanity builds and volunteering at Southdowns Elementary School, assisting with their various field days and seasonal celebrations as well as working one-on-one with special needs students in classrooms. With an enthusiasm for preserving the memories of Catholic High School, the staff works tirelessly to create the latest edition of the Bruin.

Eligible: Grades 10-12
Moderators: Margaret Smith, Thomas Kemp, and Brad Messina

Bruin Broadcast Network

The Bruin Broadcast Network is a student-run, live internet stream that will periodically stream various Catholic High School student activities, including athletic events, choir events, band events and student-run news broadcasts. To stay updated with upcoming live events, be sure to follow us on Twitter @bruinbroadcast.

Bruin Broadcast Network

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderator: Ben Relle, Tracy Vicknair, and Dan Bourgeois '97

Photography Club

Eligible: Grades 8-12
Moderators: Brad Messina and Adriane Metz