People may consider afterschool programs like this an afterthought or, for lack of a better term, a laughingstock, but for Muskegon local and Community Engagement Specialist at Access Health, Ricarlo Williams-Winston, he sees the launch of his program, Class Clown Club, as an opportunity to allow students to express themselves in ways they hadn’t considered prior.
“Through doing comedy, I’ve built an incredible community of friends and associates, and just speaking to them, I realized people have similar stories getting into comedy,” said Williams-Winston, discussing how the idea for the program started. “So I figured maybe if comedy was an option for some people sooner, it would help them in life, because this helped me tremendously. I didn’t start performing or stand-up till I was 30… Had I been able to start a little bit sooner, if I just found out about how to get into comedy or the mechanics of it, that would have helped me tremendously in my life, because I use humor every day now in all my interactions.”
A seasoned comedian with 13 years of experience, Williams-Winston intends to launch an afterschool comedy club program that will be available for all Muskegon Area public, private, and charter school students to attend from ages 13-18.
“We want Class Clown Club to give schools another tool for engaging students, particularly young people whose humor, creativity, energy, or personality may not always fit neatly into a traditional classroom environment,” said Hillery Ross, Community Program Manager at Access Health and supervisor for Williams-Winston. “Ultimately, we hope schools see students become more connected, confident, and supported while discovering strengths they may not have recognized in themselves.”
Williams-Winston is still in the process of searching for potential grants to help fund the program’s development, eyeing a specific grant provided by the Muskegon Community Foundation. He also intends to develop a fundraiser that would welcome generous individual donors to fund the program.
“It is designed to support mental health in our teenage population in Muskegon County, so I was like, that falls right in line with what I’m trying to do” said Williams-Winston, talking about the grant’s alignment with Class Clown Club’s mission. “I’m really trying to get people to get the students away to decompress, get their confidence up, make them better at interviewing; all these different things. So when my manager Hillary Ross sent me the grant, and I read it, I was like, yeah, this is perfect.”
Class Clown Club intends to launch in January of 2027 as part of a larger initiative executed by Access Health to address mental health in adolescents. Program sessions will be held at the Access Health building in Downtown Muskegon. Williams-Winston designed the program to seat up to 20 students per session, and he hopes the class, at the very least, can see at least 5 to 10 students attend the initial trials that will conclude in mid-February.
“There’s been times where I’ve felt like I was at the bottom, but I was still able to laugh and find humor in any situation,” Williams-Winston concluded. “I think finding that humor in situations is really, really, what helps people get through things, so that’s what I want for the students, I want them to start to go back to class more confident that they can get up in front of their peers and do presentations.”
