Activities

Catherine Chiang and Daisy Prom
Opinions Editors

If there’s one thing that students at AHS should be proud about, it’s the variety of activities available on campus. And yet, this is also one of the biggest sources of our shame. While we claim to have a club for everyone, participation in activities, leadership and events is not diverse, but half-hearted at best.
Last year’s Spring Executive elections proved that there is a large gap in participation between AHS’ two major ethnic groups, Asians and Latinos, and raised questions about why that is the status quo. The panelists pinpointed two major issues: the feeling of exclusivity in clubs and leadership, and the lack of effort on the part of many students themselves.
“The way our student government is run, students who network or are in a lot of clubs have an advantage. Other students feel like what they say doesn’t matter,” senior Daniel Ibarra said.
Because of the exclusive feel of student government and many clubs, students end up making excuses not to try and to avoid rejection. Even worse, many peers try to bring down students who are brave enough to take a risk and participate. However, many of the panelists agreed that this behavior, although understandable, is the fault of the students and should change.
Junior Paul Ngo added, “Students don’t put in the effort to find out information, like when to run for Council or Executive. Some kids just want everything thrown at them.”
Despite the deep-rooted problems in our school participation, there are ways to improve it. Our student panel advocated reading the Daily Bulletin, which many teachers skip— resulting in students not being informed about school events as well as not being able to
promote school unity. Another solution brought up was teacher participation.
“It’s really exciting to see a teacher participating, such as at Quad Friday events. It encourages students to participate as well,” freshman Annie Tran said.