Five days a week you’re ambitious, crafting a mean work ethic, getting involved with your community, becoming the most Radical Raider you can possibly be. But you also can’t lie—that notable logo and low acceptance rate might add to the aesthetic as well. Schedules are filled, club meetings are packed, but ambition remains wary of passion.
With the new school year has come a landslide of new clubs. They may be creating a drive for involvement, more or less tightening the Hale community, but the purpose behind claiming a name of service and experience is flawed beyond description.
It’s become increasingly common for student itineraries to be fully oriented around lunch meetings, and the numbers are sure to grow as the school year progresses. This pattern has also caught the attention of Nathan Hale’s club commissioner, junior Lilah Singh. Being responsible for approving the large volume of new clubs Singh said reading the by-laws, it’s never upfront, but, “You can tell why they’re doing it—it feels disingenuous.”
Singh has also noticed online that a lot of newly established clubs start an Instagram pages before she even gives them approval. Having an online presence as a club is almost essential to growing a presence in our community, but the rush to be recognized before formulating a curriculum for the school year displays different intentions than just creating a common space for passion.
It’s no secret that clubs are central to college applications. Their whole purpose is to expand our horizons, introduce new experiences, and open doors to whatever field is of interest. But the pressure cast by the competitiveness of college applications has detoured the drive from exploring passion and in the direction of titles you can claim on a Common App.
Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), is a fast-growing, business, entrepreneurship, and leadership-oriented organization just established at Hale this school year. DECA, along with HOSA and TSA are Career educational clubs under a mother organization called ICEV that are geared towards building pipelines into diverse areas of the workforce.
Programs ICEV provides are responsible for sparking interest and developing professionalism in our youth, but even outside of these chapters, the stress on titles has become far greater than the stress on the commitment and dedication that they are meant to translate into.
Hale DECA is a passion project started by founding-President, Junior Caleb Mercier. Along with exposure to the business world, it is known that a main goal of DECA is to “Provide a resource for [member’s] application,” explained by Mercier.
These CTE clubs are power resources that can aid students to go far in fields they are passionate about. But often students only join in hopes of achieving the titles of chapters without the actual desire of wanting to further exercise the skills these opportunities hold.
Mercier agrees important elements of college are often overlooked, “A lot of the people look at the title such as Harvard or Yale but don’t realize academics aren’t the only factor.” Explaining finances, and personal preference don’t always translate into UMiami.
Mercier also said that “at Hale, there’s not many resources for business in the school,” and represents much of the student body saying Hale lacks opportunities to become involved outside of STEM in the classroom, especially in business-oriented fields.
It’s no surprise that our curriculum isn’t heavy in the department of college-focused classes, especially AP. When we see schools neighboring us, like Roosevelt, Garfield, Ingraham, offering much more intensive honors and AP level courses it creates academic panic. Some turn to clubs to compensate.
The pre-college stress begins before even having a proper GPA for some, and as the future this opportunity seeking is preparing becomes increasingly real, the College App. Demons start to rise in accordance. Stress becomes contagious, seeing peers in your community, maybe even scrolling online seeing a valedictorian with a picture-perfect resume, sports, extracurriculars, internships, opportunities, involvement, can easily impede the value you put on your own academic achievements. Comparison becomes fuel to ambition, but ambition means nothing if the doors opened are purely for show.
The image of college being a determinant for the rest of your life puts too much emphasis on proving yourself rather than fostering a true interest. Working solely towards a title is just a recipe for burnout and paves a path away from a strong, enthusiastic work ethic. College, University, big, small, the opportunities you yield from higher education are built from the same work ethic and passion that helped you find yourself there.