While some students spend their lunch relaxing in the quad, others stay inside, meticulously folding three-by-three pieces of paper into paper cranes.

Clubs at PHS are becoming increasingly geared towards creativity and art, as with the origami club.

“Origami club is just a small art club designed [for people] to have fun and make new friends while releasing the stress that accumulates during the week,” said origami club VP junior Sarah Ching.

The club meets every Thursday during lunch to work on and learn new origami projects together.

“I think origami is fun because it requires patience and attention to detail which is really rewarding in the final product,” Ching said.

Another art-related club at PHS is the photography club. The photography club meets every rotation to share pictures and go on photo outings.

“Photography is an art to express yourself,’’ president senior Matthew Gologorsky said.

Gologorsky said he wants to share photography with the school in order to generate more interest in it.

“I express myself through photography by capturing moments that speak to me,” he said.

The Find Your Groove dance club also allows students to express themselves creatively. The club’s mission is to spread dance at PHS to students who are not able to take the dance class. The club focuses less on dancing technique, and more on just getting people to move.

“Dance is one of the oldest art forms,” VP senior Katie Milne said. “I think that at PHS there’s such a huge focus on grades, and dance is one of the most relieving art forms because you can just let go and feel the music and forget about all your stress.”

Milne and president senior Robert Yu work together to teach dance workshops once a month in the dance studio.

“I also think that a lot of people are scared away from dance because they see professional dancers with crazy techniques who do oversplit leaps and eight pirouettes, and they think, ‘Oh I could never get to that level so why bother,’” Milne said. “We’re trying to encourage people that it’s never too late to start dancing.”

Any student at PHS can participate in any of these arts clubs to alleviate stress or to have fun.

“I believe many people underestimate how important art is,” Ching said. “I wouldn’t consider myself an artsy person, but I believe there are many benefits to participating in simple, easy projects. [They build] important life skills like determination, patience, and commitment.”