Battle offers an immense amount of extracurriculars for students including a wide variety of clubs. One of these many clubs is the Teen Outreach Program (TOP).  A group of adults from the Boone County Health Department teach teens how to deal with situations in everyday life such as communication skills, friendships, healthy relationships, future planning, drugs/alcohol, and much more. The club meets every Tuesday from 4:05- 5:05 in room F104.

Josh Runnels, the club supervisor, is very fond of the club. “Students should join because it’s a safe space for teens to come and be themselves and to learn more about themselves and others,” Runnels explained. 

The students enjoy the club quite a lot as well. John Hixon, junior, said, “I like everything about it. On a day to day basis we start off by sharing our highs and lows of the week and we continue with some sort of activity where the goal is to learn more about yourself. I joined because I thought it would be a stepping stone to improving myself as a person.” 

TOP Club has been around for about ten years, helping students talk about important topics and spreading positivity. This will be Runnels’ third year in Battle’s TOP club. Runnels said, “Being a facilitator, I work for the Youth Community Coalition (YCC). I wanted to work that job to be an advocate for youth development and for arts and education related development as well. Being able to go to high schools in Columbia as well as some of the high schools outside of Columbia, is really great because I want to be able to inspire youth with education, life skills, and arts if I can.” 

Sophomore Deandra Donre said she joined for a new experience. “I decided to join TOP Club because I wanted to try something new and I wanted the opportunity to meet new people as well.” 

TOP Club is a great space to meet new people, learn more about yourself, and just have a fun time. For more information on TOP Club, visit the Battle website under “Extracurriculars”.