BETA Club is a national organization designed to promote, highlight, and celebrate student achievement through the continuing development of scholarship, leadership, citizenship, service and character skills.  Students complete volunteer hours and service projects throughout the year.  

The first meeting will be held on Wednesday September 21st after school.  

Please contact Mrs. Moore-Allen or Mrs. Gilchrist for additional information.  

Show Choir is a NCASA competitive event where students sing, dance, and perform as an ensemble for regional and state level adjudication.  

Auditions will be held mid-October.  

Please contact Mrs. Reimers for additional information.  

Student council is an administrative organization of students that works to keep the student body informed and engaged in philanthropy.  Members of student council are elected and will meet every other Tuesday from 2:45-3:30.  

Elections for student council will begin in November.  

Please contact Mrs. Blue or Mrs. Flowers for more information.  

The STARward Stem program is a collaboration between RTI International and Cumberland County Schools that is igniting students' passion for STEM while illuminating new and exciting STEM career paths through engagement with STEM industry professionals.  

Each year, the STARward STEM culminates with a student STEM design challenge.  During the challenge, teams are charged with developing an idea to improve life in space, and three winning team projects are selected for launch to the International Space Station (ISS) for experimentation.  

It is this design challenge that you will be working toward in the STARward STEM club.  Come out and test your knowledge and skills.  STARward STEM meets Tuesdays and Thursdays with teacher advisors. 

The first meeting will be held Thursday September 8th in the Media Center immediately after school.  

The Pearls of Virtue Mentoring program is hosted by Dr. Tillman.  It is a monthly meeting that addresses topics such as self-esteem, life skills, etc.  The projected start date is October 6th.  

Battle of the Books is perfect for dedicated sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students who love to read and enjoy the thrill of competition!

Team members read from a list of 16 young adult titles, create questions about them, and are tested on their knowledge of the books’ plots, settings, and characters. Battle of the Books allows students to enjoy great literature, strengthen reading skills, spend time sharing books with other readers, and showcase Seventy-First Classical’s top-notch academic and study skills.

Battle of the Books meets every Wednesday, from 2:40 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., in the Media Center with Ms. Fulcher.

The 2022-2023 North Carolina Middle School Battle of the Books List.

• "Airman" by Eoin Colfer
• "The Bitter Side of Sweet" by Tara Sullivan
• "Black Brother, Black Brother" by Jewel Parker Rhodes
• "City Spies" by James Ponti
• "The First Rule of Punk" by Celia C. Perez
• "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
• "House Arrest" by K. A. Holt
• "I Am Malala" (Young Reader's Edition) by Malala Yousafzai
• "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling
• "A Night Divided" by Jennifer A. Neilsen
• "The Ruins of Gorlan" by John Flanagan
• "To Night Owl from Dogfish" by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer
• "Starfish" by Lisa Fipps
• "The War That Saved My Life" by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
• "When Stars Are Scattered" by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
• "The Shape of Thunder" by Jasmine Warga

Are you looking to connect with friends in a club that's fun and also helps others? Campus Life is just that!

The club will be doing lots of fun activities throughout the year that focus on being positive and dealing with the challenges of middle school life in creative ways. We also want to serve others through some possible volunteer projects later this year.

If this interests you, meetings are Wednesdays, from 2:45 to 3:45 p.m., in Rm. 24 with Mrs. Beckham and representatives from Campus Life. 

Do you enjoy saving the world? Do you dream of ruling the galaxy? Then "Club of Justice" is for you!

We enjoy stop-action animation, drawing our own comic book characters, and making up superhero games. Learn about, read about, and discuss superheroes and villains by integrating methods of the writing process through debate and persuasive pieces. We will be watching short video clips, arguing points, and diving into the realm of Marvel and DC Comics, and other areas!

Bring your imagination, creativity, and fun!! Come join the club! 

Forensic speech is the study and practice of public speaking and debate, according to the American Forensic Association. Students learn and practice speech and research skills to inform or persuade an audience. We compete in four tournaments during the school year, from November through March. At Seventy-First Classical Middle School, students participate by attending after-school practices. The team meets each Tuesday from 2:50 to 3:50 p.m. in Room 21. Please be prompt in picking up your student after practice. Students with questions about Forensics should see Ms. M. Johnson in Room 12 or Mrs. Israel in Room 28.

In the beginning, students work on choosing a piece to perform during the meetings. Students MUST PRACTICE at home. The coaches expect to see improvement in preparing a piece from one week to the next. School meetings are for getting suggestions about improvement and demonstrating that improvement.

We are permitted only five participants in each event at a tournament. We try to take everyone to at least one tournament (if they have the piece memorized by the end of November). If there are more participants than five in an event, the individual coaches hold try-outs approximately two weeks prior to a tournament to choose those who will go.

If a student is selected to go, he/she will receive a letter of instructions and a permission slip to be filled out by a parent/guardian. After the registration for a tournament is submitted (about one week before the competition), we cannot change the list of competitors. Therefore, it is important for parents/guardians to be sure that their child participates if he/she is chosen. We travel to the tournament by bus from school, but parents are responsible for picking up their students from the tournament site.

The categories are:

• Dramatic Interpretation (D.I.)
• Duo Interpretation (DUO)
• Extemporaneous Speaking (EXTEMP)
• Humorous Interpretation (H.I.)
• Original Oratory (O.O.)
• Storytelling (STORY)
• Public Forum (Forum)

The first meeting will occur in September.  The exact date is TBD.  

Please contact Ms. Johnson or Mrs. Israel for additional information.  

Gentlemen of Distinction is a group for young men who would benefit from an extra level of support. Instead of traditional methods of punishing students who are off task, these young men are provided with mentors who facilitate access to resources and strategies to help them conduct themselves as one of our Gentlemen of Distinction.

The Gentlemen follow a Code of Honor that includes:

• Excellence in character,
• Excellence in academics,
• Rationality in conflict resolution,
• Doing the right thing, whether it is noticed or un-noticed, and
• Being safe, kind, respectful, and responsible.

The first meeting will be held Tuesday September 13th.  

Quiz Bowl is a game in which two teams face off in a head-to-head competition to answer questions from all areas of knowledge, including history, literature, science, fine arts, current events, sports, and popular culture. It is a co-curricular activity similar in design to the game show “Jeopardy.” This activity promotes team-building and reinforces classroom content. Our school competes with other middle schools in individual and team formats.

All students are welcome to try out. Students will “test in” to make the team after receiving study materials. If you are interested in joining, please email Mrs. Whiting. 

Regular meetings will be determined at a later date and announced.

Science Olympiad allows students to compete in 22 different Science events. This activity is open to all students; however, students must be strong in two events (Sixth Grade) or three events (Seventh and Eighth Grades) to participate in the competitive team.

• Anatomy & Physiology
• Circuit Lab
• Crimebusters
• Codebusters
• Density Lab
• Digital Structures (formerly Boomilever)
• Disease Detectives
• Dynamic Planet
• Experimental Design
• Food Science
• Fossils
• Game On
• Heredity
• Machines
• Meteorology
• Mousetrap Vehicle
• Ornithology
• Picture This
• Reach for the Stars
• Road Scholar
• Water Quality
• Write It, Do It

Students interested in Science Olympiad should plan to attend the annual Interest Meeting in October, with Mr. Regensburger in Room 27. Practices are held regularly, beginning in late October, with meeting days and times varying by event. All information for students who have signed up is available in Google Classroom. Interested students are encouraged to visit the North Carolina Science Olympiad website.

The mission of Science Olympiad is to promote and improve student interest in Science and to improve the quality of K-12 Science education throughout the nation.

The Science Olympiad vision to accomplish this mission is:

• To create a passion for learning Science by supporting elementary and secondary Science Olympiad tournaments at building, district, county, state, and national levels, with an emphasis on teamwork and a commitment to excellence.
• To improve the quality of K-12 Science education throughout the nation by changing the way Science is perceived and the way it is taught, with an emphasis on problem-solving and hands-on, minds-on Constructivist learning practices. This goal is accomplished through in-depth core curriculum training workshops and the distribution of curriculum materials to thousands of teachers.
• To celebrate and recognize the outstanding achievement of both students and teachers in the areas of Science and Technology by awarding thousand of certificates, medals, trophies, and scholarships.
• To promote partnerships among the community, businesses, industry, government, and education.

The specific purposes of Science Olympiad tournaments are:

• To bring Science to life, to show how Science works, to emphasize problem-solving aspects of Science and the understanding of Science concepts.
• To develop teamwork and cooperative learning strategies among students.
• To make Science education more exciting so more students will enroll in Science courses and engage in other Science activities like Science reading, fairs, meetings, and field trips.
• To promote high levels of achievement and a commitment to excellence and to demonstrate that American students can perform at levels that surpass the expectations of even practicing scientists and engineers.
• To attract more students, particularly females and minorities, to professional and technical careers in Science, Technology, and Science teaching.

The first meeting will occur in early October.  The exact date is TBD.

Please contact Mr. Regensburger for additional information.