Global Issues Club

Will host trips to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and conduct livestreams.

“At the Global Issues Club we are trying to educate the lab community further on issues concerning the global community.”

— Gershon Stein

Children’s Rights and

Education

The club supports vulnerable children around the world of different ethnicities, backgrounds and social classes that are in dire need of help.

“We plan to work with several NGOs such as UNICEF, Children’s Rights and You and more to make a larger impact. We will fundraise and collect supplies for these organizations, hold discussions about the problems children encounter globally and engage with students in different parts of the world.

— Esha Mishra

Coalition Z

Coalition Z at Lab is a branch of a national organization called Coalition Z.

“Our goal is to amplify the voices of our generation in politics on the issues we care about. Every week we do an action alert, such as calling our representatives in Congress. We also plan on hosting a voter registration drive and attending town halls or city council meetings.”

                                      — Olivia Cheng

La Cedille

Will watch French movies and listen to French movies.

“My club’s goal is to speak French outside of a classroom-type environment.”

— Zoe Dervin

Launch Club

Participants will come up with ideas for start-up companies. A program called MIT Launch will provide materials for the club throughout the year.

“In our weekly meetings, we will help teams develop their start-ups by discussing the entrepreneurial process. The teams will also be paired with mentors who are also entrepreneurs.”

— Jeremy Ng

SCAN

Will protest issues affecting children through political advocacy.

“We really want to educate people about the importance of early childhood education and the huge number of kids and moms who are dying overseas and how we can combat these issues.”

— Natalie Glick

UNICEF Club

Will have fundraising events each quarter.

“We will also try to do charity work and align ourselves with UNICEF and their ideals as much as possible.”

— Dania Baig

U-High Conservatives

“Our club is planning to invite conservative speakers to talk to those who are interested, and to hold events such as U-High Free Speech Week, where we will show our appreciation for our first amendment.”

— Michelle Tkachenko-Weaver

Women in STEM

Will have a mentoring program with U Chicago undergraduates, host speakers, networking socials and community service events at elementary schools.

“Our goal is to see more female representation in higher-level math/science classes and in STEM extra curriculars across all high schools in Chicago to ultimately increase the number of girls who choose to pursue STEM in college.”

— Ananya Asthana

Miyazaki Club

The club is dedicated to watching Hayao Miyazaki movies.

“We’re not overly active in events and such, though we might have one to fundraiser to buy actual movies, as opposed to getting bad online versions.”

— Bassem Noghnogh

Sustainable Oceans Alliance

Will host events to clean lakefront beaches.

“The goal for my club this year is to educate the next generation of leaders about problems that are just beginning to manifest in the ocean today.”

— Nikhil Patel

Wildlife Conservation club

Will host fundraising events for climate change.

“As our climate suffers from climate change, every species in our world is now at risk. From the Great Barrier Reef to the Arctic Tundra, our environment is experiencing a drastic change. It is our duty to do everything we can to help these species survive.”

— Joana Rose

Awards for debate captains

The Debate Team took part in the Trevian Invitational Oct. 7 at New Trier High School. No team advanced past preliminary rounds.

The team competed in the Mid America Cup at West Des Moines Valley in Iowa Sept. 25-27, where debaters gained their first of the two required bids to the Tournament of Champions. Out of about 140 individual speakers, Michael Hellie was awarded a second place speaker award and Dheven Unni was awarded a sixth place speaker award. Michael and Dheven as a team gained votes for the coaches’ poll, a list of the top 25 teams in the country.

The team began the season with the Niles Township Invitational Sept. 8, bringing home two speaker awards but failing to get the bid for the Tournament of Champions.

“It was not the performance that we hoped for,” Michael said. “We worked pretty hard for the tournament and then it was a bit of a letdown.”

During the competition, Michael was named seventh place speaker, and Dheven was awarded 16th place speaker of the 180 individual speakers at the competition.

                                                            — Iván Beck

MUN hosts prep conference

On Sept. 23, U-High’s Model UN team hosted its first conference of the year, which was a huge success. The team will travel to Vanderbilt University in Nashville next weekend to compete in the first away conference. 

LabMUNC was a one-day conference that took place on Lab’s campus.

The main goal of this conference was to get students ready for the bigger, more important conferences in the future.

                                                  — Abby Slimmon

Midway, U-Highlights gain national awards

The U-High Midway has recently earned national recognition, and the U-Highlights yearbook also received a high rating from national journalism associations.

NSPA named 49 finalists for the 2016-17 Pacemaker Award, including the Midway. Of those, 26 papers will be Pacemaker winners, which will be announced at the National High School Journalism Convention in Dallas Nov. 16-19.

The Midway also received an All-American rating, the highest rating in the NSPA student media critique service, and the U-Highlights yearbook received a First Class rating with two Marks of Distinction.

Five Midway students received CSPA Gold Circle Awards for individual work, including Michael Rubin, first place, news page design; Natalie Glick, second place, cultural feature; 2017 graduate Paige Fishman, second place, single spot news photo; Emma Trone, third place, feature page design; Talia Goerge-Karron, certificate of merit, page one design.

— Grace Zhang