Theatre Council meets biweekly on Fridays in T3.
No one showed.
Debate Club meets weekly on Mondays in D3.
No one showed.
This is more common than one may think.
Back in September, students poured into the Quad eager to explore the clubs offered at Carlmont, signing up for multiple clubs in exchange for free food.
At the end of the day, students find themselves with an overwhelming amount of Remind messages and the realization that they can’t be committed to all.
This is especially common for freshmen, who jumped at almost every opportunity to participate in a club.
“Clubs are new to freshmen, and they are interested in making it look good for their college resume,” said Ali Owyang, a freshman. “They’re enticed by the free food at the club fair and aren’t aware of the big time commitment.”
With clubs holding sessions all over campus every day at lunch, students often find themselves re-evaluating their commitment to the clubs they signed up for.
“I joined four clubs freshmen year: Hope Brigade, Feminist Club, Ukulele Club, and HOSA. I only ended up staying in Ukulele Club and Hope Brigade, often alternating between the two on Thursday,” Valentina Yudin-Baehrle, a sophomore, said.
Since different clubs spark different student’s interests, students can find themselves in different clubs than their usual group of friends.
“Students are often interested about the goal and purpose of the club that they joined, which can be different than those of your friends,” said Felice Gallegos, a freshman. “If you don’t have many classes with your friends, different club meetings can take away time from hanging out with them.”
For club officers, running clubs are also a large time commitment due to the need to plan for their meetings.
“For Key Club, the board plans out the entire month’s meetings at our monthly meetings. When we hold meetings, most of the month is already planned out, and I just reciprocate the information to the members,” Jonathan Deridal, the president of Key Club, said.
Cindy Chen, the president of Carlmont’s Hope Brigade Club, prepares her meetings to focus on the goal of her club and to also make sure that students have fun at the meetings.
“I usually go to different hospital websites and see if there is any event, service, or program that seems realistic and doable for a high school club,” Chen said. “I want people to have fun, so I try to do other activities that my members would enjoy doing.”
As the president of Hope Brigade, Chen looks forward to their weekly Thursday meetings to see all of her club members in a positive and healthy environment.
“When you’re part of a club, it’s really fun to reconnect with friends and have a good time together, because especially in high school, it gets hard to see all of your old friends every day,” said Chen. “It is truly a real treasure to see all of your friends at your club.”
