Written by: Chris
Edited by: Chloe
Visual by: Tatiana
As ISM begins reopening for the second time this school year, many clubs and extracurricular activities must once again undergo the process of adjusting to an on-campus environment. With COVID cases subsiding, many clubs have already hosted a few on-campus meetings, and a genuine chance at having ongoing, physical meetings finally seems within the realm of realistic possibility. Bamboo Telegraph interviewed the leaders of two ISM Clubs and asked them what excited them about the prospect of resuming permanent face-to-face meetings, as well as the challenges they foresee ahead.
One of ISM’s most prominent clubs, the Robotics Club, has restarted its weekly meetings in the Robotics Lab. In addition, the club is even having Saturday morning meetings, an opportunity for members to spend more time on their projects outside of designated time during the school week. Mudit, the Robotics Club president and a junior, was pleased to see members from the L-Z hybrid surname group attending, but hopes to boost attendance in the A-K surname group. Regarding the approaching Robo Rumble competition, he expressed an urge to expedite efforts on constructing a robot for the event, and remains committed to this effort.
The Model United Nations (MUN) club, another popular extracurricular, has also made plans to conduct on-campus debates, with the first of these scheduled to be held on Friday, February 18th. Sid, a junior and one of MUN’s secretary generals, discussed organizing these debates and noted they involved “a lot of back-and-forth with teachers, admin, students, etc. and we are working with a short deadline too.” Concerning difficulties he faced, Sid commented, “ I’d say actually one of the challenges is something that we faced online but has been magnified during hybrid learning; finding an ideal date for everyone. Seniors are incredibly busy this time of year, with the recent announcement of International Baccalaureate (IB) mocks happening.s juniors have seemingly never-ending assessments and teachers are beginning to roll out IAs. We didn’t want to take up a weekend, but at the same time we didn’t want to push people to come on a school day so we settled for a Friday after school.” He offered some promising and hopeful words in closing, stating how, “Other than that, though, we are super excited to finally see debate happen face-to-face. I’d be lying if I said during most of my online debates I was fully focused.”
With the endeavors of these clubs and many others building significant momentum, the ambience at ISM has never been more elating. Events such as Robo Rumble and the upcoming MUN meetings highlight a paradigm shift for the better: it signals a resurgence of the interactions provided by these clubs, enabling us to pursue our interests beyond the classroom with passion and enthusiasm. This is something many of us need, and with hope, these clubs will deliver.