One of Bay Shore High School’s informally created student groups, MCAT club, stopped meeting on September 18th, 2025. The interest group began in September 2024, with around 40 to 50 members that attended weekly meetings. This community was built off of students sharing similar interests and curiosity about the field of medicine.
Group’s Impact
The founders of this group, Jaciel Lopez and Diego Garcia, were the graduates of the class of 2024-25. Their motivation for creating the group was to expand the knowledge of students that were interested in learning about medical fundamentals, the use of the anatomage table to learn about human anatomy, and to further the knowledge about other medical procedures and careers in medicine. Additionally, students had the opportunity to learn more about the broad range of careers in medicine. Mr. William Paleologopoulos, also known as Mr. P amongst his students, acted as the group’s faculty advisor until they stopped meeting.
Principal Stephen Gordon received the club proposal this past fall from Mr. Paleogopoulos and group members Nabeela Khan, Wayne Abigail Ocno, Noa Reyes and Jeremiah Bailey.
“Unfortunately, the proposed club was unable to move forward for approval because funding and club allocations for the High School had already been established, and there was no opportunity to add additional clubs beyond the current offerings,” said Mr. Gordon.
On September 17th, 2025, Mr. Paleologopoulos was given the news that the group would not officially become a club during the 2025-26 academic year.
“My response, initially, was disappointment, and I was upset; we were really looking forward to the club,” said Mr. Paleologopoulos.
Mr. Paleogopoulos announced this update on Google classroom on September 18th, 2025. The immediate rection from group members was to email Mr. Gordon to ask why the group would not become an officially funded school club. In addition to writing emails to administration, Reyes and Khan, started an online petition on change.org to voice how important this group was to them.
Funding Constraints
As of the 2025-26 school year, there are 34 clubs currently in existence at Bay Shore High School. Every club is assigned a set amount of funding. The funding allocation is distributed by the Board of Education every year at the very start of the school year. Due to the lack of additional funding, the group did not move forward with becoming an official school club. Though the MCAT club can continue to meet informally, it would have to continue to do so without the funding provided to official school clubs.
“There is a chance the MCAT club will make a comeback. There is certainly quite a bit of student interest, and our administration is evaluating the possibility,” said Mr. Paleogopoulos. “This club was loved by many students; it mattered so much because the club built a sense of community, support, and reassurance.”
