Clubs send videos to participate in virtual club shopping

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Students gather around a club shopping booth during the 2019-20 school year.

Meena Lee, Reporter

Students will learn about clubs this year through virtual club shopping beginning Sept. 15. After viewing informational videos sent in by every club, students may sign up for clubs on a Google form that will be available Sept. 18. 

Dean of Students Ana Campos posted a link to 71 club videos on Sept. 15, where students can look through the clubs for a few days before signing up. 

According to Ms. Campos, the videos advertising each club had to be less than one minute long.

“We have a lot of clubs, and I want people to want to watch [the videos],” Ms. Campos said about the time limit. “I think after a minute, people are going to start to glaze over.”

For junior Ava Eggener, Jewish Students’ Association president, having the video be the only advertisement for her club was difficult.

“It’s really hard to portray what a meeting is like, or what we really do, from a video,” Ava said. “You aren’t going to be able to just walk by the JSA stand and say ‘Oh that looks really cool.’”

Senior Cindy Wu, Model United Nations secretary general, said club shopping this year is more difficult because it is harder to get people engaged. 

“There is definitely an element of it being very disconnected from all the prospective freshmen,” Cindy said. “If it was in person, we could talk to them and answer any questions they have on the spot.”

Despite the challenges, Ms. Campos said she hopes there will be a lot of students joining clubs this year.

“Clubs provide a lot of great ways to get connected with other people who have similar interests and hobbies,” Ms. Campos said. “Especially right now when we are remote, the thing we need the most is to feel connected to each other.”