Whether it's through root beer floats, anime, gender equality advocacy, or cultural gatherings, M-A students have found their individual niches in our community of clubs. On this sunny Friday afternoon, students bustled all over the green to learn about the clubs, while club ambassadors handed out candy in exchange for new members and spoke passionately about their exciting plans for this year.
The Black Student Union (BSU) aims to unify and diversify M-A. The BSU's theme this year is "Operate in Excellence." Palutea Maafu explained that the BSU will partner with other cultural clubs and the Feminist Club to diversify its point of view and hear unique perspectives.
"Our first project is Know Your Rights. Know your rights as a minority, as a person of youth, as a woman, as a man, as a transgender person."
-Palutea Maafu, BSU
Students communicate their cultural pride in the clubs they create and dedicate themselves to. For example, the Asian Culture Club will be hosting more lunchtime events so that M-A students can learn more about Asian culture.
Similarly, The Latinos Unidos Menlo Atherton (LUMA) Club is going to celebrate Latin American culture by celebrating Día de Los Muertos in November, and lending a helping hand to its fellow Latino community through drives.
"I'm a Latina, so I'm really happy to be in a club like this." -Melody De La Quintana, LUMA
The Poly Club, which has had a strong presence at M-A for years, looks forward to hosting a Poly Night this year. Poly Night will be a fun event where all students can come learn about the Polynesian heritage and culture.
"We want to show the community that Tongans, Samoans—everybody— can learn how to, you know, learn a little bit about the islands, learn how to hoola." -Mo Tautuaa, Poly Club
The Genders and Sexualities Alliance (GSA) looks forward to this year, and intends to educate students about what it means to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community, coordinate fun art-making activities, and create friendships.
This year, the Feminist Club is going to be more advocacy-based. President Holly Newman explained that plans for a sanitary products drive for women's shelters are in the works. The Feminist Club alos plans to partner with the BSU and the LUMA to learn from the other clubs, become more involved in the community, and advocate together.
One of M-A's newest clubs is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA.) President Aidan McKay decided to create the DSA because "[he] felt it was necessary because everyone has a very skewed idea of what socialism actually is."
McKay's club is the first club at M-A that is associated with a political party.
"The JSA's plans this year are to encourage political activism and help people improve their public speaking" -Mani Sehgal, president of the Junior State of America
The Pride Pals will be spending every Friday lunch in E-25, the special-ed classroom, to hang out with the special-education students and do arts and crafts. At the end of the year, the Pride Pals host a prom for the special-education students. Additionally, this year, the Pride Pals are bringing a branch of "Support the Kid," a nonprofit organization, to M-A. "Support the Kid" raises money for families with children fighting cancer.
"We spend every Friday in the special-ed classroom to hang out with [the special-ed students], ... make connections with them, to give them a real high school experience." -Carly McLanahan, Pride Pals
The Ronald Macdonald House Club (RMHC)'s mission is to support the kids at the Ronald Macdonald House in Palo Alto, which is a residential center for the families of local hospital patients receiving extensive treatment. The RMHC will organize drives, workshops, and holiday events for the Ronald Macdonald House.
President Joey Lohmann says that what he loves most about his club is that "you are able to work with kids on a daily basis, and if they're struggling with a chronic illness, you can make it a little bit better for them."
Cricket Gorey and Isabelle Sapountzis of the Women of Medicine, Business, and Technology (W.O.M.B.A.T.) club explained that this year they want to expand their club and hopefully bring in more high-profile speakers who can impart some wisdom on their professions, and on being a woman in the American workplace.
Sapountzis said, "We invite women to come in that have jobs you've never heard of before, we had an aerospace engineer which was awesome, we've had graphic designers, corporate lawyers. It's really interesting just to find out all the other opportunities out there."
"Our goals are to be a bit more productive, show different videos of conspiracies, ancient aliens, things like that, and just bring people together to talk about conspiracy theories"
-Malcolm Dempsey, Conspiracy Club
If you love the outdoors, M-A Wild is for you. The club aims to expose students to the Bay Area's most exquisite spots and allow them to appreciate the beauty that we are lucky to have just a short car ride away. President Heath Hooper said that M-A Wild is planning to go on hikes once a month, and send letters to Congress about protecting natural lands. The club will also coordinate trail cleanups in an effort to make our surrounding community as beautiful as it can be.
Club member Andrew Geiser said that what he likes most about M-A Wild is that "we can all embrace our wild side."
The Junior Classical League (JCL), which focuses on the language and culture of Classical Greece and Rome, aims to place higher in the JCL State Convention this year.
Natalie Park conveyed her enthusiasm for the Junior Classical League, describing it as "the one place where everyone in the club appreciates Latin, which is considered a dead language, but it is very much alive today."
"We want to place higher in the JCL State convention this year. We got third last year, but I think with can do even better with more numbers" -Natalie Park, Junior Classical League
The Anime Club cannot wait to start playing games, watching anime, and discussing anime at lunch time. They are also planning to go to Anime conventions. They emphasized that their club is not just about loving anime — they aim to celebrate Japanese pop culture.
