Students do many activities at school, but there are other events found in and around Severna Park for high schoolers they may not know about, at the library and community center and local businesses.

The Library at the Mall has many events for teens. There is K-pop Bingo on Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. for students who love music. A Teen Mario Kart Tournament will be held on Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m., and winners will get a gift card in addition to bragging rights. 

Some virtual events are also available through Anne Arundel County Public Library, including a Virtual Anime and Manga Club where teens can discuss anime and manga, and cosplay and share art on Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. Finally, there is a Virtual Paint Along on Nov. 20 at 2 p.m. where students will paint with watercolors.

The Library Happenings magazine comes out quarterly, and a new magazine will be out for December, January and February.

Park Books is a new bookstore that opened in May 2021 in Severna Park. Park Books has study rooms that can be used by students, and it currently has two events that are also for teenagers: a teen manga club on the first Tuesday of every month and a teen book club. The book club is read with your teen style, so parents can read “Defy the Night” by Brigid Kemmerer with their kids and attend the book club on Dec. 2.

“Hopefully it would be a monthly thing,” Beth Gillespie, an employee at Park Books, said, in reference to the book club.

The Dance Center of Severna Park also has classes for high schoolers and meets at SPCC. “We offer Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Hip Hop, Lyrical, Pointe, Ballet Technique, Modern, Flexibility and Conditioning, and Leaps and Turns classes for high school students,” Kellie Greer, director of the Dance Center of Severna Park said. Only two of the classes are not drop-in classes, Pointe and Ballet Technique.

All the rest “…can be attended as drop in as long as the dancer emails [email protected] 24 hours in advance and that month’s session is running,” Greer said.

 These are just a few places in the community that have activities for teens, and they are hopeful to have more, and teens share this hope. Some teens were even unaware of any.

Sophomore Parker Montagne believes a “Band at the community center” should be started.

“It surprises me because I didn’t know any of them existed,”  freshman Laney Deaton said.