Author: Christina Huang, Inaya Yusuf
Date: April 23, 2021
Source: ICC
While all clubs at EVHS, new and old, certainly persevered through the challenges of distance learning, they all were accepted in varying degrees for the 2021 to 2022 school year. Some clubs were accepted initially, others denied for conflicting purposes, some labeled as on “probation” for the upcoming school year, and others pending for a few errors made during the application or renewal process.
For larger and well-established clubs like EV Speech & Debate or Robotics, the process of renewing their club was just as well guaranteed. Robin Yang, current co-president of Robotics, expressed that they are “excited to continue spreading knowledge of robotics and STEM throughout the EVHS community.” However, when club decisions, which were posted to the EVHS Schoolloop news section on April 21st, were postponed, it left many smaller and potential new clubs crossing their fingers.
The United States America Decathlon (USAD), for example, a club that had been founded amidst the pandemic, attempted to complete all of their paperwork as soon as possible in order to ensure that they could begin planning for the upcoming year. Tiffany Dang, president from the 2020 to 2022 school year, reflected: “During this renewing phase, we had worked early to get all the articles done for ICC to review. We were certain that our renewal would be approved. Although there were some missing articles we had to add on after the decision, we ended up with an approval because USAD had worked hard this past year and we have a clear vision that it will be better in the following school year!”
Although they have been on campus longer than USAD, Math Club was similar in the fact that it was also another established club that was successfully renewed for the 2021-2022 year. As this was not their first time doing it, they passed through the process easily. Arianna Cao, current secretary and future treasurer, admitted that “At first it looked pretty overwhelming since there were so many forms to fill out, but once we divided up the work and set deadlines, it wasn’t that bad.”
There were a few successes for clubs who were hoping to establish themselves for the first time for the 2021-2022 year, one of them being the Pop Music Club, who, when club decisions came out, were originally on the “Pending” list. After they made their necessary adjustments, they were finally approved by the ICC. Grace Yan, future president of the club, said, “I was panicking that our club was going to be on the denied list, but once we realized we were pending and we just needed to fill some missing paperwork, it was all good. Honestly I didn’t know what to expect, I was just hoping that our club wouldn’t be denied, since everyone worked so hard on it! But now it’s super relaxing knowing we had been accepted as a club for next year and I’m really excited to get to start implementing and executing some club ideas.”
Caption: The logo for the Pop Music Club, which was originally pending but has now been accepted. (Drawn and designed by Charlotte Ho, future secretary of the club.) (Charlotte Ho)
Other clubs still on the “Pending” list include well-established clubs waiting to be renewed such as Key Club, Film Club, Choir, Folklorico, and many others. Most of their renewals as established clubs are already guaranteed; leaving officers with the only job of correcting the missing pieces of paperwork that were accidentally left out of their application.
For example, Key Club was told by ICC that they were “missing [their] advisor! Fill out the form on the EV homepage under clubs section under how to start a club!” Officers from Key Club said, “Though Key Club expected to be put as pending as we unfortunately could not find an advisor in time for club renewals, we are persevering in finding teachers to contact. We are grateful the school offers an assistance form to support us in situations like this. And though it’s a little nerve racking to think Key Club might not be approved and thus would disappoint our caring members, we’ve gained more confidence as we’ve been reviewing our values to forge onwards.”
Typically, reasoning for being put under the pending category was either complications with the advisor or “missing parts of application” due to a failure to follow “correct ICC format, [as shown in] the example folder.” Clubs that the ICC were not sure of either accepting or rejecting were given a probation semester, where clubs will be allowed to function normally for the first semester of the upcoming school year in order to test their capabilities and see if there is substantial interest and dedication to keep the club going. This included various clubs, like the SAT Preparatory, Art for Change, and Architecture & Design clubs, all of which were left the message of “probation year / testing (i.e. we will check again 1st semester).”
Some clubs had the unusual case of needing to “be merged on May 4th in the learning lounge at 4 pm.” This included GATSVI (Gifted and Talented Silicon Valley Investors) and EVHS Invests, as well as two separate applications for a Stock Market Club. This similarly placed them under the “pending” category, despite having no apparent issues with their paperwork.
Just as there were many approvals of new and returning clubs, there were also a few denials of clubs, each club left with a note that stated the reason for its rejection. One common rationale for their rejection was that their purpose and club idea were too similar to existing clubs at EVHS. For example, many programming related clubs, such as Biz-Coder and App Smith, were denied on the basis that other clubs with similar purposes already exist and have been approved. Other clubs that were denied for various reasons included ACS Chem Club, the Logical Training Club, Med-Art, and the Social and Emotional Intelligence (SEI) Club.
The SEI Club faced this issue, being told to “join ARK or Leadership’s student advisory committee. We already have an established system.” Meanwhile, the Logical Training Club was denied because it appeared to be just “a fun group of friends getting together to play logic based games. This does not need to be a club.” However, ICC followed up by saying “We would LOVE to host a sudoku tournament for Welcome Week and/or Homecoming – and Leadership will be happy to help you make it happen.” Other clubs, such as the Spikeball Club, received offers from ICC to work with Leadership to implement their ideas, despite faced issues preventing them from becoming an official club.
The ICC, however, encouraged all denied clubs to not let the rejection deter them from applying again in the future. “If your club didn’t get accepted this year don’t let this discourage you from reapplying next year,” they assured. And to all of the accepted clubs who dared to apply and put forth their ideas, “We are looking forward to working with you all in the upcoming 2021 – 2022 school year!”
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