Student Activities

The ACLU chapter at Commonwealth is dedicated to promoting and protecting the civil liberties of all peoples. Activities include phone banking for the census, working with the Student Immigration Movement to stop the deportation of high schoolers in Boston Public Schools, and discussing police reform. 

Chess Club meets once a week to play and discuss the game.

Description coming soon.

Commonwealth Cares is a student-led group of students in all grades who work together to offer interesting and meaningful community service opportunities to their peers. The aim is to provide a range of opportunities such that every student finds something he or she would like to participate in. In recent years, service opportunities have included preparing a monthly dinner at the Pine Street Inn Women's House in Dorchester; supermarket drives for Our Place; blood drives through the American Red Cross; refurbishing computers at the World Computer Exchange; volunteering with the Prison Book Program in Quincy; tutoring and other projects at Blackstone Community Center; working with children at the East Boston YMCA; learning to lead CPR training with the American Heart Association and many more.

Commonwealth Food Initiative matches the school's extra food resources with Bostonians in need. Student volunteers distribute meals after each lunch to shelters for homeless people and other vulnerable populations in the city.

Distinct from Commonwealth's Model UN team, COMMUN plans and hosts an annual Model UN conference for middle schoolers from Boston and surrounding areas.

COMMunity's goal is to make every student's Commonwealth experience fun and socially fulfilling by planning events and activities, such as school dances, movie nights, and trivia. 

Members of this club discuss strategies and algorithms and solve competitive programming problems together.

Debate meets weekly to practice for conferences held by the Debate Association of New England Independent Schools, DANEIS, and hosted at schools in the Boston area; we attend five or six each year. Commonwealth's team participates in Parliamentary Extemporaneous debates, which are unrehearsed and done in teams of two. Most often, resolutions are in the form of a policy to be implemented by the US Congress. One two-person team defends the proposition, while a second team (representing the "opposition") attempts to refute the "government's" position. The debated propositions can range from the serious ("The US Federal government should cut off all funding for theoretical mathematics") to the goofy ("Superheroes should enjoy free healthcare benefits") to the goofily historical ("Be it resolved that Athens kicked more butt than Sparta.") Commonwealth also participates in other forms of debate (Interpretive, Impromptu, Public Speaking), and occasionally in informal scrimmages with other teams in the Boston area.

The club has nearly twenty members, of whom as many as a dozen go to each conference. Each Thursday, we conduct one full-length practice debate, and our officers work with our debate coach to provide constructive feedback to help students improve their argument formation and public speaking.

Perhaps our most intriguing student organization, the Evil Genius Club makes puzzle hunts for the school, which are "like escape the rooms except without the room." They are as fun to plan as they are to play. In their own words: "We are the evil geniuses that make heroes possible!"

French Club members speak French, watch popular movies and shows from France, and eat French treats. It's a place to engage with the language outside of class in a more relaxed atmosphere. Past club activities have included watching Au Service de la France (A Very Secret Service) and clips of Ionesco's La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Singer), as well as reading plays aloud. In the spring semester, members practice various skills for the AP French exam.

Football Club is a club that talks about the beautiful game, the most popular sport on planet Earth, the sport in which you use your foot (unlike another sport with the same name): football. Widely acclaimed (according to its founder) as the greatest Commonwealth club ever, you will learn a lot about the tactics, the inner workings, and the rules that are associated with football!

Game Club, or Game Design, allows students to incorporate elements of game theory and design into games of their own devising and creation.

Description coming soon.

Knitting Cult, otherwise known as Fibre Arts Club, is a space for anyone interested to learn to knit or crochet (or any other fibre art), as well as one for experienced crafters to share their projects and interests with the community.

Commonwealth's literary magazine, Helicon, is produced one to two times a year. It compiles student (and sometimes faculty) writing, poetry, and art. Student editors select what to include and design the publication.

• Massachusetts Math Olympiad
• New England Math League
• The American Mathematics Competition series
• Purple Comet
• The Harvard-MIT Math Tournament
• Greater Boston Math League
• The Mandelbrot Competition

The Model Congress club sends about 15 students to Harvard's Model Congress Conference each February. During meetings, student leaders teach about Parliamentary procedure and the art of writing laws as they prepare to impersonate a member of Congress, take part in Supreme Court simulations, or engage in an historical re-enactment.

Commonwealth's Model UN team has attended the Brown University Simulation of the United Nations, MIT Model United Nations Conference, Boston College High School Model United Nations, and Concord Academy Model United Nations. Over the years, Commonwealth students have won many awards at these conferences, including Best Delegate, Outstanding Delegate (second place on the committee), and Best Position Paper.

The Commonwealth Chronicle, our school newspaper, is produced entirely by student writers, editors, photographers, formatters, and artists. Articles range from school news and faculty profiles to social and cultural trends and politics. It appears several times a year.

Simply put, Philosophy Club aims to learn and discuss philosophy. 

Inspired by the rivalry between the Fencing and Sailing teams, The Commonwealth Pirate Association (Pirate Club) was created to unite the would-be adversaries under one banner: piracy. Why argue about whose sport is better when you can have fun in the spirit of both? 

Since its inception, Pirate Club has been meeting occasionally on Thursdays. The club hosted a Dress Like A Pirate Day the week before Halloween and had a crossover with GSA in a meeting on the queer history of pirates. 

Our goal as a somewhat ambiguous and uncommon organization is to learn about pirates from all over the world during The Golden Age of Piracy (as well as possible other time periods... if they have boats and swords we're open to it). Come join us and our crew!

The Robotics Team is a venue for students to explore computer science, engineering, and applied physics through hands-on activities with electrical and mechanical systems. Students of all grades and experience levels are welcome and can participate in various ways.

Students can learn about standard microcontrollers with open-source programming and explore various topics including mechanics, electric circuits, and computer programming. The Robotics team has also participated in the inter-school VEX Robotics competition. The focus here is on a larger-scale robot that must perform per-determined functions with a given set of components. In both cases, students work as a team to design and build their ideas from scratch.

Speech Team is a place where kids with a passion for public speaking and being on stage can participate in fun competitions and learn more about the art of speaking to an audience.

Commonwealth's annual yearbook is put together by a small but dedicated staff headed by an editor, a senior who, most often, was the previous year's assistant editor.

Commonwealth's yearbook differs from larger schools' in several ways. Though every student receives a yearbook, each senior has a full page, and creativity is encouraged. The book itself preserves the fun, offbeat feel of the School itself, rather than hewing to a predetermined format.

Description coming soon.

The goal of Feminism Club is to create a safe space to discuss topics surrounding gender equality and double standards based on current events.

The Gender-Sexuality Alliance ("GSA") aims to be a safe and welcoming environment for students, faculty, and staff of all genders and sexualities to come together, build community, discuss and improve the school climate for LGBTQ+ people, and engage with queer issues in our city & beyond.

Description coming soon.

oy. is Commonwealth's Jewish student group. Activities include discussion, kvetching, and copious cross-talk.

Sisters, our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office's first affinity group, is a group for women and non-binary people who identify as Black, African American, and mixed race. 

We Discuss brings together students and teachers to talk about identity, difference, and current events. Discussions and presentations at weekly meetings draw on students' own experiences, cultures, races, and backgrounds. We Discuss helps to create a community at Commonwealth that is open to dialogue on such issues as social justice, race, gender, and sexuality.

The committee also helps organize school events, including Diversity Day, during which student-facilitated workshops and activities replace regular classes.