In Person School Makes Way for New and Returning Clubs
With classes underway and students back in the groove, clubs are springing back to life. For the past year and a half, most clubs didn’t meet. Now, students are picking up where they left off. A range of student-driven activities that meet at lunch or after school are launching again this month, from Anime Club to Student Council. And, students who are interested in creating a club or who want to continue a club that was active before should contact [email protected].
Anime Club-
Dion Lambert (class of 2019) founded the Anime Club in 2018 to create a place for students to come together to watch anime. Senior Billy Rosas continued the club in the beginning of his sophomore year and continues to host the club this year. In addition to watching anime together, he hopes the club will be able to raise money to attend an Anime Convention this school year. Art and Yearbook teacher Linda Filo is the club’s faculty adviser.
There are currently 18 members.
The club meets Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. in Room 114.
For additional information, contact [email protected]
Civic Engagement Initiative-
Civic Engagement Initiative is an organization for students and faculty who want to be engaged and active in the community. The students choose an issue or topic to learn about and then they plan how they will take action to engage and involve more people at Eastside. The club is led by teachers Stacy Arevalo and Jaya Subramanian. This year, the club plans to raise money, take field trips, and shift more leadership to the students. The Civic Engagement Initiative will start meeting on Sept. 10 at lunch in the Art Room.
For additional information, contact [email protected] or [email protected].
Student Council-
The Student Council is open to all students who want to participate. In the past, its members have taken the lead on creating spirit-building activities on campus, and on other topics, depending on what the students want to undertake. The Student Council’s faculty adviser is Vice Principal Helen Kim who will lead an informational meeting in October.
For additional information contact [email protected].
Interact Club-
The Interact Club is a community service club that works on the Food Drive, Toy Drive, Blood Drive, Leukemia Drive and Clothes Drive over the course of the year. For the first event of the year, the club has already organized a Coastal Clean-Up on Sept. 18 starting from 9:00 to 12:00 at Cooley Landing. There will be a Recruiting Pizza Party outside of the Art room where the club hopes to recruit freshman and sophomores, on Sept. 30 during lunch. There are currently 17 members, Senior Christopher Guerrero is the president and junior Uriel Velazquez-Leon is vice-president, and Art and Yearbook teacher Linda Filo is the adviser. There are 17 members in the club so far, and the maximum number will be 25. The club meets on Thursdays during lunch in the Art Room.
For more information contact [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]
Speech and Debate-
Speech and Debate is a class and a club with competitions against other schools’ teams in two areas. In Speech, students compete individually in events for which they write and memorize their own eight- to 10-minute speeches, or present an existing speech or work of literature. In Debate, students work in pairs and focus on one topic for the entire year, adding to their arguments for or against the statement by continuing to research the topic. The statement this year is: “The United States federal government should substantially increase its protection of water resources in the United States.” Jaya Subramanian is the advisor and the head coach is Kwodo Moore from the Silicon Valley Urban Debate League. Speech and Debate currently has five members but will increase after Cross Country season ends. Interested students may join and should contact [email protected]
Robotics Club-
In the Robotics Club, students learn how to build robots and then participate in a competitive tournament with similar clubs from other high schools and middle schools, called Botball. The club has competed in Botball competitions since 2013 but not in the last two years due to COVID-19. Botball is an Educational Robotics Program for Middle School and High School students. Statistics teacher Bob Reklis is the coach of the Robotics Club. The first meeting was on Tuesday Sept. 7 at 6:00 p.m. in Room 109 and 10 students came. The Robotics Club will meet every Wednesday in Room 109 from 5:30 to 6:30.
For additional information, contact [email protected]
Cheer-
Sophomore Zoe Villegas-Macias and Erin Robinson are forming a Cheer team to support Eastside’s sports teams. The first official meeting will be on Sept. 14 during lunch in the theater. The faculty advisors are Drama teacher Amy Connors and Dorm Residential Faculty Chaslie Lamas.
For more information and updates contact [email protected] and [email protected].
K-pop Club-
The K-Pop Club is starting again, led by senior Sarai Wagner and advised by Biology and Chemistry teacher Marlene Mullin. The club discusses K-Pop news, plays games and hopes to visit K-pop cafe’s to meet new people and more. The club will meet on Wednesdays from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m in Room 110, starting on Sept. 15.
For questions, contact [email protected]
Gender and Sexuality-
The Gender and Sexuality Club (GSC) was first formed in the year 2010 as the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) to bring students together to safely explore concepts of gender and have conversations of sexuality. It went through some name changes, and in 2014, was restarted as GSC. Most recently, the GSC has met every two weeks and invited Eastside alumni as guest speakers and hosted movie nights. One time, the club sold baked goods to raise money for an LGBTQ+ center in Redwood City. The last time the club was active was in 2019, led by Lupita Diaz (class of 2021) with advisors Craig Young and Amy Cummings. Senior Indira Villeda will lead the club this year.
For any questions, contact [email protected] or [email protected].
