Balancing precariously on a desk, the Truth Seekers vice president and senior Sasha Fenton clears her throat a few times, calling the weekly meeting to order. The group of students in the room quickly falls silent. Fenton announces the topic the members were to discuss, and soon the room erupts into noise again as the students engage in lively discussion.

This is a normal occurrence for the members of the club, who meet after school on Fridays. They spend the meeting time debating about a pre-picked topic that they prepared for.

“It’s really informal, but it’s good to talk about topics that you might not talk about in a school environment,” freshman and Truth Seekers member Elizabeth Ducharme said.

Topics discussed in the meetings range from trade embargoes to the sex trade.

Many members of Truth Seekers were referred to the club by either an older sibling or a friend.

“I joined because my brother went,” senior Allie Emroll said. “Other people [referred me to Truth Seekers].”

Emroll has been in Truth Seekers ever since her freshman year, and she enjoys going to the meetings because she can see her friends there.

Another member, sophomore Sean Hogarty, joined the club because his parents encouraged him to join.

“[My parents] told me to join it,” Hogarty said. “I joined it and I loved it.”

Hogarty enjoys the freedom to express his opinion in an informal environment.

“We diverge so much from the initial topic and […] I have no idea how we got [there],” Hogarty said. “There are a lot of funny moments and […] it’s good discussion.”

Hogarty believes that although the group is primarily composed of people who lean to the left, there are still differing opinions that allow for interesting discussions.

“You’d think the people in the club would be heavily liberal-leaning,” Hogarty said. “[But] there are people who are libertarian and more conservative in there. Not certain people you’d expect to be that way, but there is a balance of opinions in there.”