Virtual Clubs
GLKUAIS students discuss how they’ve adapted their clubs to a virtual setting.
February 25, 2021
One of GLKUAIS’ major lifelines is our clubs. Our club versatility caters to everyone’s interests and gives us all a chance to pursue our personal passions outside of the classroom. However, with Covid-19 and our newly distorted perceptions of normalcy, how have we kept our clubs alive?
Out of 11 clubs surveyed, 100% have continued hosting their clubs amidst the global pandemic and completely virtual meeting organization. With Covid-19’s unprecedented longevity and its effects on our educations, all of our club leaders have had to adopt some significant changes.
According to the president of GLKUAIS’ National Honor Society, Jaden Loy, “Our club has had to redesign almost everything to fit into a virtual setting, as well as forgo many service events we would normally host but simply cannot out of a good conscience.”
The complete reconstruction of clubs isn’t exclusive to NHS. Our Student Advisory Board president, Catrina Cagalawan also noted: “As a board, we had to work way harder this year because we completely reconstructed all of our in-person events for a new medium. It was essentially starting back at square one for everyone.”
This reorganization has had an immense effect on the workloads of our busy club leaders, with 54.5% of our club leaders claiming that their workloads have increased from their pre-pandemic levels.
With heavier workloads comes the inevitable increase in stress levels. 100% of responses from club leaders said that their stress levels have absolutely increased when it comes to the organization of their clubs. Student Senate Vice President and French Club board member, Lara Tinawi, claims: “My stress levels have increased because it is extremely hard to get attendance for both of my clubs and find activities that are engaging and will get people to come and be interested. We’ve resulted to many creative meetings that sometimes work, and sometimes fail horribly.”
Despite the struggles that the global pandemic has posed, the flexibility and dedication of our student leaders is as evident as ever. Everyone’s ability to adapt and persevere through their challenges has made it abundantly clear just how much our clubs mean to us here at GLKUAIS, and just how hard our student leaders will work to keep our clubs alive.
