Aleena Nasruddin, Editor-in-Chief
@aleenacourant
74 clubs at the high school have to adjust their plans for the year to abide by both the Center for Disease Control guidelines and the high school’s hybrid learning model restrictions.
Clubs such as Model United Nations and Charity Link adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic by hosting their meetings through Zoom. However, recruitment and engagement still remain a challenge for some clubs. Most clubs now rely on daily announcements and posters to promote their clubs, since the in-person club fair normally hosted in October was cancelled. A virtual club fair will be hosted this year instead, which will invite clubs to pre-record brief video introductions for students to watch at home.
“What I found over the years when we had in-person club fairs is that most of the kids grab the candy offered and sign up for a club, but don’t follow through,” Assistant Principal Ari Rothman said. “If a kid is inclined to get involved they will follow through.”
Students can still hope to get involved with in-person club meetings if their club has ten people or under. Small clubs are allowed to host in-person meetings at the high school afterschool for all cohorts to participate in. “I think clubs will be as active and engaging as they are and have been,” Mr. Rothman said. “It all depends on student leadership.”
The Charity Link club plans on meeting through Zoom every Tuesday after school to plan charity events for the year. “We have a small group of girls at the moment, but they are all very committed to the club, so I don’t think virtual meetings will be much of a distraction,” Charity Link Co-president Eleanor Lapin said.
Charity Link plans on hosting a candy drive for Halloween and a talent show to raise money for selected charities. “We’re relying on promoting our club through the daily announcements, posters, and Facebook,” Eleanor said. “Other than that, we’re just trying to recruit new members by word.”
The Model United Nations club at the high school shifted to virtual weekly meetings through Zoom. They have also promoted their club on the daily announcements and through their Facebook group. “If this were a normal year, it would be simple and easy for people who were interested in our club to drop by one of our meetings and see how we run things,” Model UN captain Olivia Licata said. “It’s much harder to get new members to join our club because you need to get them in the Facebook group and give them the club’s Zoom link.”
MUN will attend virtual conferences hosted by other universities, instead of the usual weekend-long trips the club takes to attend debates. “Even though it’s still disappointing because kids in the club really look forward to out-of-state trips, virtual conferences may be better because we will be able to attend debates that we wouldn’t have in the past,” Olivia said.
The club is also planning on hosting virtual conferences through Zoom and inviting other schools in Fairfield County to participate. These conferences will have a similar format to the previous virtual Sophomore Simulation, a conference hosted to introduce sophomores to Model UN. “We are a bit nervous about the lack of excitement regarding Zoom conferences,” Olivia said. “But, we are trying hard to keep the team spirit up and make our club culture even stronger.”
