By Heydi Medina
ROGERS, ARK. — A community has been developing at Haas Hall Academy at the Lane through a club new to campus this year. The Assembly of Assorting Distinctions Club thrives on the aspect of connection and sharing opinions and thoughts with a unique debate style.
“People love to fight and argue, and I respect that!” said Génesis Trevino, the club’s officiator.
With the help of “Tiermaker.com,” Trevino presents topics that grab the attention of the members. She has done this through putting a weekly poll of the most popular topics in the club’s Google Classroom, so the group has a direct say in what they are ranking.
“I’d call myself a vessel for the ideas that we have as a club, of course, that comes with a little bit of responsibility [like] making sure that everyone cleans up after themselves, so we don’t leave any mess for Mr. Kelly Graham who has so graciously given us the opportunity and volunteered himself to be the sponsor!”
Trevino said she has encountered a few difficulties regarding the club, and she stated that actually just that day, “This week was Marvel Cinematic Universe Characters Social Attractiveness, I opened the tab and I *pause* put Óscar Isaac first and my [opinions] were threatened, but it’s okay! I convinced them all that he was S+ tier,” which is the club’s highest ranking.
“It’s like herding cattle,” Trevino declared. “My favorite opinion is probably that of Mr. Kelly Graham, he has such insightful input for every session we have!”
Constantly, the members are seen expressing themselves so passionately and, Trevino describes as, “Loving it, I think it’s a good way to express our feelings in a room with no judgment and understanding that whatever happens in there, we keep it in there!”
Alayna Walker, a member of the Assembly of Assorting Distinctions Club, likes how, “Everyone’s opinion matters, and everyone gets the opportunity to explain the discourse.”
Walker spoke of Trevino being the vessel for the club, “She’s pretty brave for that. It’s pretty inclusive, [But] they can get a little excited, jump even!” Trevino and Walker asserted, “It’s a good place to let people know what your character is like and how much you want to fight, sweat, and bleed for your opinion!”
Kelly Graham, the sponsor teacher for the club, explains that the opinions “. . . are always interesting and sometimes random . . . There is no way I can predict what they’re gonna be doing, so it’s always gonna be like a surprise for me. I will say it seems like a lot of food,” Graham expounded on the food theme: “They were doing Thanksgiving foods, and they didn’t want to put stuffing in the top tier, and I was like Oh My Gosh! I had to step in!”
Graham didn’t necessarily hop on board with Trevino being the “vessel” although he described that “Trevino’s the coach. She’s the leader of the team. She keeps the topics on track . . . keeps the time going and makes them clean up their trash; I mean she’s really awesome. They all really are!”
Of the members, Graham said, “Some of them are really good at trying to convince others that their pick is the best. They got some good argumentative skills going on! Tyler’s pretty good at getting up there and saying a bunch of things, in fact he gets up there and leads the way sometimes.”
The story was unable to be written without including the most influential member, senior Tyler Whitted; “I look forward to it . . . it’s very fun and I know a lot of the people and it’s fun to disagree with their opinions. It’s very funny!” Whitted exclaimed, “I’ve always been a confrontational person . . . I was never afraid to state my opinion very loudly. I am an argumentative person.”
Essentially both Trevino and Graham along with the members are constantly bouncing off each with opinions and discussions that continuously add onto the argument no matter how serious or impactful the topic may be that day. It is refreshing to witness that no matter how much disagreements there are, the group always comes back each Thursday to state their affairs that reflect a friendly hamlet, a small village of contributing rankers.
