Clubs rush into the new school year
October 4, 2022 marked Newbury Park High School’s annual Club Rush, a club fair displaying the different clubs NPHS has to offer. With everything from Doctors of the World to Mock Trial, there is something for everyone with practically every interest being its own club. This year’s turn out was huge and students are looking forward to another year exploring their interests through the clubs that NPHS has to offer.
Philanthropic- Entering its second year of operation, Doctors of the World is a club based off of the nonprofit organization of the same name. Senior, Niah Goudar, founder and president of the club, explained that the club mainly focuses on sending donations and supplies to people in major crises. “I think this year, we’re keeping the focus on delivering stuff to crises around the world. And we’re planning over the next few weeks a drive to help collect products for the relief efforts for the recent hurricane in the east coast,” Goudar said. She is also happy to see the amount of students joining the Remind, meaning the club is expanding. “Last year, I think we had like 40 people to 50 people on the Remind and we’re up to like 90 now, which is amazing…I think a big thing that attracted a lot of people was telling them that being in the club was really versatile, really good for college and just good for community service as well,” Goudar said.
Design- The NPHS Graphic Design Club made their debut at this year’s Club Rush. Dominic Folino, junior and co-founder of the club, explained how the club’s main purpose is to teach students about graphic design and inspire them to get creative in a digital format. “We specialize in sharing, creating and learning about digital art as well as graphic design and what we can apply it for. So we can teach people how to use certain free applications or tools that can help benefit them for graphic design as well as digital art itself as well,” Folino said. With the amount of sign-ups the club got at Club Rush, Folino is hopeful for the future of the group. “For now, the club is relatively small due to it being the first week, but we’re assuming it to be a little bit larger due to people signing up after club rush. So we’re going to see a lot of new faces who are going to bring a lot to the club itself,” Folino said.
Donate- Supporting all menstruators in our community, Periods with Pride is a club dedicated to menstrual equity. Himani Pothulu, senior and co-president of the club, explained what they have done in previous years and the impact Periods with Pride has had on the community. “We make care packages for the organizations that we’re donating to. I think it’s just a really nice experience to know that you’re making a big impact on our community that doesn’t have access to menstrual products. Because not everyone has that. That it’s not very accessible,” Pothulu said. At this year’s Club Rush, the club’s goal was to get more underclassmen sign ups to continue the fight to end period poverty. Pothlu was more than happy when they met that goal and expanded the club. “It was a lot more successful than ever, since we got a lot of people that came up. Especially underclassmen, which is the audience that we’re trying to reach out to, because we want this club to go on after we [seniors] graduate,”
Order!- Mock Trial has been a staple club at NPHS for years, educating students on the court system through simulated court trials. Mina Nguyen, senior and president of Mock Trial and attorney on the club’s Gold team, explained what Mock Trial does as a club. “Mock Trial is an academic club where we focus on introducing some students to the legal system, and each year we recreate a fictional trial that was stimulated in the courtroom at our county competition,” Nguyen said. To Nguyen, this year’s Club Rush was a huge success. “I think Allie [publicist] and I definitely harnessed in on focusing on getting new members who are interested in law, because a lot of people think that Mock Trial is very nerdy. I don’t think that way and I think we’ve definitely changed that perspective,” Nguyen said.
Educate- Water safety education has been the main goal of the NPHS Stop Drowning Now club. Efforts to inform about water safety have been mostly targeted at the youngsters in our community, with members of the club creating presentations for preschool and elementary age students. Carolyn Duc, junior and secretary of SDN, explains how the club also does fundraisers to raise awareness about water safety. “Our overall goal is to raise money at events, like fundraisers, and then we also do beach cleanups where we get donations…and we give them to the overall organization of Stop Drowning Now in order to help them aid more children,” Duc said.
