Grandville — The Minecraft Club at Oakestown Intermediate School operates as a democratic society — a city-within-a-classroom, if you will. They have a mayor, sixth-grader Nicholas Voiles. They work together under a shared social behavior contract, which all students have signed. The club’s unofficial founder is sixth-grader Jonah York.
And overseeing it all is teacher Chelsy Darby, a Minecraft enthusiast who is delighted to give students the chance to form a new city — and a new community — every 10 weeks.
“Our big thing is culture — building a positive culture, a welcoming and accepting culture,” said Darby of Minecraft Club. “It brings students together who might have different interests than their peers, and here they have something in common with everybody and it really opens up friendship opportunities to continue fostering throughout the year.”
‘I wanted to help channel people’s creativity — like, really channel it.’
— sixth-grader Jonah York
The after-school Minecraft Club, launched last school year at Oakestown, is run by Grandville Community Education. It has quickly become one of the most sought-after offerings, thanks to the popularity of Minecraft, an online game where players can build worlds with other people, collect resources, fight monsters and create their own challenge goals.
On Wednesday afternoons, Darby and her students gather to build up their city, play each other in battles and complete “challenge builds.” Each student has a job within their community, such as banker, sheriff, farmer, decorator or blacksmith, which they get to choose.
“We’re problem-solving, working together, strategizing, coding — all these different ways they connect within (the city),” she said. “They build these things that have moving parts and they have to put them together in a specific way. I just love watching them connect while they’re building.”
Channeling Creativity
Though it’s one of her favorite hours of the week, Darby gives credit to student Jonah York for the club’s creation. Last fall as a fifth-grader, he started the school year by campaigning for a Minecraft Club at Oakestown after enjoying a similar club at his elementary school.
“I really, first of all, wanted to play Minecraft on my school Chromebook … and then once I got here (to Oakestown) I wanted to help channel people’s creativity — like, really channel it,” said Jonah, who started playing Minecraft when he was 6. “Like sometimes, with school and education, they’re teaching us how to do certain things a certain way. … (Minecraft) is a sandbox game, which means you can do literally whatever you want and you can be creative.”
Once Jonah’s informal campaign made it to the right ears at Oakestown, the Community Education team and Darby quickly made it happen.
‘We vote on everything, so it’s like a democracy.’
— sixth-grader Nicholas Voiles
“It felt very good,” Jonah said of being able to help bring the club to his classmates. “It’s not just someone helping with a video game, it’s about the creativity. At least, that’s what it means to me.
“It’s also given me back my social life, and I like hanging out with people. Last year, with the person I partnered with for multiplayer (games), we became very good friends.”
Fellow club member Nicholas Voiles agreed: The community aspect of Minecraft Club is the best part.
“It’s always been, like, a dream of mine to play in a group of people, and then Minecraft Club came up and I was excited,” he said. “Everybody can work together as a unit, and there’s so many of us that we can get a lot of resources, which is good.”
‘We vote on everything’
Nicholas served as the mayor during the fall 2025 session. In that role, he not only managed the club’s capital city and kept operations running smoothly, but he also served as Darby’s assistant during club meetings.
Despite those important responsibilities, Nicholas said he’s most proud of the way the group came together to create a social contract for their time together. At the start of the 10-week session, they voted on standards of game play that everyone agreed to abide by.
Among the rules: “No griefing.” (No destroying everything.) “Specific times for PVP.” (Player vs. player.) “Don’t target.” (Don’t gang up on one person during a battle.)
“We vote on everything, so it’s like a democracy,” he explained. “The main thing about our contract … is that we want to make it fun for everybody. So no destroying everything. It’s about the game, but it’s also about everybody having fun.”
Darby said it’s been gratifying to see the club empower students to use their voice in a community, whether serving as a farmer or the mayor.
“I think it’s so important for them to know that they’re being heard, that they’re a part of the club and they have a say in what happens,” she said. “It helps them get invested, like: ‘This is our Minecraft Club family and we make decisions together and we vote on things together.’ It’s never just one person in charge.”
As an English language arts and social studies teacher during the school day at Oakestown, Darby has also noticed club members developing some important interpersonal skills thanks to the game.
“It’s really fun to listen to them have these conversations as they build and figure things out,” she said. “They are so passionate about it, but I’m listening and thinking, ‘I don’t think you realize how awesome this skill is that you’re using right now to play this video game.’
“They’re hanging out with a friend and playing a game, but they’re using all these communication skills, and that is so awesome.”
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