The complex art and science of fronting a school club
Print Edition
At the start of the new school year at Shanghai American School, enterprising high school students set up shop at the Club Fair, enticing their peers to join their clubs. Competition is fierce as attention spans wane, but by the end of the day hundreds of students have joined at least one club.
Newly minted presidents have already designed the club’s mission statement and secured a staff advisor.
Next, they have to navigate their way through the cooling-off period for new sign-ups and brace themselves for two audits. The student executive council does the auditing, on the look-out for flaky clubs designed purely to go on college applications.
“That’s not only detrimental to their integrity, it’s harmful to others. It creates a sense that service isn’t really about service, it’s just about college apps,” says Ricky Zhong, president of the Executive Coucil.
“Eggschange” helps farmers in rural China sell their eggs, and has been running successfully for years. Winning ingredients? A club with a unique, specific vision and a motivated team run by strong leaders.
So what drives some students to want to set up, or lead, a comic magazine club or “The Happiness Project” or a marine biology club? According to Zhong, “what really sets people apart is that they want an effect that goes beyond themselves. Many people are passionate about photography, but we have a photography club at school and it’s full of people who want to share and learn from each other. That sounds like a great club to be part of.”
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