Newly established clubs at DVHS cater to a diverse array of student passions and are actively bringing the DVHS community together, establishing a presence amongst pre-existing clubs. Presently, DVHS boasts an array of over 200 clubs, with an impressive 56 being formed in the current year alone. These new clubs encounter a multitude of hurdles, including advertising, member engagement, and administrative responsibilities. Nevertheless, numerous new clubs are rising to the occasion and leaving a substantial mark on the DVHS community.
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
One club that is already starting to make waves within the DVHS community is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). Led by passionate sophomore officers, the club has already hosted multiple events for their important cause.
“Our mission is to spread awareness about blood cancer,” Vice President Rachel Xu stated. “There are cancer clubs at DVHS like the American Cancer Society, but we’re focusing on blood cancer, which is not really talked about a lot. We aim to shed light on the experiences of blood cancer survivors, as well as the experiences of professionals who treat it.”
This noble cause has motivated club members to be extremely involved in the community, continuously searching for ways to expand the club’s reach. For club officers, establishing a club presence at DVHS takes a great deal of dedication and perseverance. And even though the club is off to a strong start by hosting a multitude of events, the officers continue to strive for success.
Xu expressed her desire for continuous improvement, stating, “Communication is something that I want to improve on, because we don’t have a set schedule yet on what events that we’re doing every year.” She continued, “We’re kind of just going with the flow right now. But we feel that communication is a key factor, so we’re trying to focus on it.”
However, while starting a new fundraising club does a lot for the community, it also comes with a whole host of challenges. The main challenge that LLS is facing? Member retention.
Xu explained, “There were a bunch of people at our first meeting, but we want to make these people come back to our next meetings, which can be hard because we’re a new club.”
To make sure that the club retains members, the officers are working hard to engage them through interesting activities and events. One of the key strategies they are using to improve member retention is partnering with more established DVHS clubs, such as CSF, Interact, and ACS on these events.
When asked about future LLS plans, Xu states, “Our biggest event coming up is our partnership with ACS, which is one of the biggest cancer clubs here, for the Light the Night event. Together, we will light lanterns to commemorate the lives lost to cancer.”
Bhangra Club
Next up on the list of clubs strengthening the DVHS community is the Bhangra Club. Bhangra is a traditional folk dance from Punjab, a state of India. The club aims to spread knowledge about this dance form, and was created to address a lack of representation of Punjabi culture at DVHS.
Club president Rishika Kohli explained, “We didn’t see a lot of Punjabi representation at DVHS, whereas other schools have things like Sikh clubs.” She continued, “We thought that to create awareness about Punjabi culture, we could teach bhangra, something we already have done for years outside of school.”
Bhangra Club officers are clearly passionate about their mission, yet there are still many obstacles they must overcome to establish at DVHS- the main one being spreading awareness about the club.
Word of mouth is often the best way to go when spreading awareness, but it’s a hard strategy to use without extensive connections. The Bhangra club took an innovative approach to advertising, and Kohli explained, “Advertising through social media, club day, and school forums were how we were able to get a good amount of people to try out for the bhangra team.”
Through effective advertising, they were able to establish a competitive team of 16 girls, along with some novice members who wanted to learn the basics of bhangra. This team has become a tight-knit community, open to all levels of experience.
While discussing the team environment, club secretary Tapasya Kohli remarked, “We just want to create an inclusive environment where people can grow, rather than already be perfect.”
The team has big plans for the future, and members look forward to establishing a large presence in the DVHS art community. In the coming years, club officers hope to achieve competitive success, while also creating an inclusive space for people to experience bhangra and Punjabi culture.
“Right now, we may not necessarily be a club who can immediately start performing at rallies, but we’re going to work our way up there,” Rishika Kohli stated. “We’ll start with local competitions and Festival of the Arts, and hopefully we can get to a rally by the end of the year.”
Pen and Platform Society
The Pen and Platform Society is a new club that aims to foster a welcoming safe space for writers to express their ideas in various forms. From poetry to short stories or novels, the club assists qualified student writers so that its members can receive the support they desire.
Sophomore Dia Chopra, a member of the Pen and Platform Society, explained in a recent interview how her experiences in the club have been so far, as well as what she hopes to gain from it.
Chopra expresses her appreciation for the time and effort that the officers put into their slideshows, agendas, and content. She states, “They have everything pretty well thought out…with the competitions…also their guidelines for being a proper member isn’t very challenging to complete.”
She continues to stress the importance of club meeting durations. Like many students, Chopra is met with stressful work and social life every day. As a result, the amount of time she can dedicate to a certain activity is limited. The Pen and Platform Society and other clubs have been working to address valuable content during each meeting in a limited amount of time, as they have grown to prioritize students’ mental health and well-being.
Chopra believes that writing style is extremely important. This is one of her primary motivations for joining, aside from its uniqueness of being one of the few non-STEM related clubs on campus. She believes that the skills she learns from those lessons will benefit her when she needs to write her resume, college applications and much more. The Pen and Platform Society offers help with a diverse range of writing styles and genres. However, one style in particular that Chopra enjoys is poetry. With the help from her peers and officers, she is able to reconnect with her old self by doing what she loves.
“I can start to do poetry and maybe just find a way to let go of things sometimes and just get any, like a safe space for a little bit and then go back to [everything else].”
