By Tiffany He, Clarion Staff Reporter
In-person learning has resumed for almost one school semester so far at Kennedy. Students and teachers are constantly adapting to the changes, but some school clubs are continuing online club meetings while the majority of the clubs have met in person. California Scholarship Federation (CSF) is one of the largest clubs on the school campus. According to the CSF adviser, James Lam, the club has 120 participants and will increase to 150 participants in the Spring. Lam said, “We cannot have in-person meetings simply because there are too many of us .” While meeting online is the safest for CSF, Lam is also aware that “without requiring students to be 'on camera', you always have the problem of people showing up, but not really being there.” Another club that hosts online meetings is Mathletes. Because the club mostly involves traveling to different schools for competitions, which is restricted during COVID, club adviser Dalton Simpson concluded that “ felt it made sense to do virtual meetings,” except that “the energy is definitely a lot more subdued for online club meetings.” Mathematics, Engineering, Science, Achievement(MESA), by far, is the only club that recently returned to in-person after starting out with online meetings. According to club adviser, Yasmin Henry, in-person club meetings are “like regular class with masks and it seemed to work very well” as more students attended in-person meetings and “were brainstorming and communicating with each other.” But Henry also acknowledged the advantages of online meetings as students can use Google slides to present their ideas, and an assistant from UC Davis was also there to help. With the pros and cons being considered, Jillian Yee, the club president for CSF, Mathletes, and the Key Club, stated that online meetings are “easier to access but harder to interact with” as not every student behind the screen is engaging.
A sign-in screen on laptop to enter Zoom. At least 3 Kennedy clubs rely on Zoom for club meetings. Image by Tiffany He, Clarion Staff Reporter