Despite the chaos and uncertainty brought about by the previous year, this year many of the high school’s extracurricular clubs will be operating on a mostly normal schedule.

COVID-19 cases have gone down since last year, which means that students are allowed to interact with one another so long as they follow the current guidelines and mandates like those regarding masks and social distancing. According to Ryan Rubenstein, assistant principal, clubs and activities are “back to a relatively normal thing now. All of [the clubs] are meeting in person and doing what they usually do.”

Leaders of extracurricular activities including Political Science Club and Interact, for example, say they are expecting a mostly normal year.
“All of our meetings were online last year, and we weren’t really able to do things hands-on, which was rough. I had so much fun my freshman year, and last year we weren’t really able to do a lot of the things we wanted to,” junior Ava Malin, an Interact officer, said.

Malin said last year the pandemic interfered with Interact since many of the club’s activities involved or even required physical contact with others or with surroundings.
“We’re very excited for this year, since we’re actually able to go places and do things, [as long as we] stay COVID safe,” Malin said. “I’m also really hoping that we can make it fun for the new freshman so that they stay in the club, because last year some of them didn’t.”

Kim Ferraro, sponsor of Political Science Club, says she is feeling optimistic about clubs being back in person, although she recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic is still a topic of conversation for many.

“A lot of the discussions we had last year were driven by COVID,” Ferraro said. “It was always a topic that [students] wanted to talk about, especially with the vaccine coming out and all the safety policies.”

While many of the club’s meetings were held over zoom last year, Ferraro says they still “went very well, thanks to the cooperation of the students and officers.”
“One thing that I’m really excited about is seeing all of last year’s freshmen,” Ferraro said. “I had so many kids join over zoom last year, so I’m really excited to see some of their faces for the first time this year.”

With students back in school, many sponsors and leaders of extracuricular clubs are looking forward to the new year. “It’s so much more fun to be in the building so I can see and talk to students, so I’m really excited for this year,” Ferraro said.