For many, the new year means getting back in the gym, saving enough money for that big ticket item or quitting a bad habit, but for a group of sophomores looking for community, 2026 means getting shredded in a different way.

After a discussion about the chess club and a well timed spelling error, sophomores Victoria Farley and Alex Yager, along with some other friends, hatched a plan to start the Cheese Club. Weeks later, Theology teacher Troy Bodman and other curd connoisseurs gathered with cheese in hand. Bodman, a cheese lover himself, said he chose to become the club’s sponsor because of its communal nature.

Bodman’s goal for the club is to create a place for anyone to gather.

“It’s not so much about all of these crazy activities and very niche interests or things like that,” Bodman said. “It’s more of a social excuse to have just a good time at a club.”

Both Yager and Farley share this goal.

“It’s just whoever wants to come can come,” Yager said. “We’re not exclusive in any way, shape or form. We believe cheese should be for everyone.”

Farley mirrored this sentiment.

“You can just go and talk, or not even talk,” Farley said. “You can just sit there and it’s just if people are going to be here after school anyways, they can come hang out in there, and it’s just a chill room.”

Before each meeting, the club posts hints on what the cheese of the week might be on its Instagram, revealing it at the meeting and judging it based on a scale adapted from professional cheese rater.

“Everyone gets to try a bite or two, and we have this rating system of like, texture, color, taste, just smell, like all the different things you’d expect for a cheese, and you taste it, you give us our rating,” Yager said. “It’s kind of a group effort.”

So far, the group has had one meeting.

“It’s been great,” Yager said. “We’ve had a lot more people turn out than we expected. It’s going pretty smoothly on the back end of things.”

With the next club scheduled for next Friday, Farley urges students to try it out.

“Come to Cheese Club,” Farley said. “Cheese Club is great. Cheese Club is awesome, and cheese is for everyone.”