It’s a record-breaking year for the Hyacks – but this record has nothing to do with athletics.
This year, New Westminster Secondary School has a whopping 51 clubs available to students, and last week, these clubs all had a taste of the spotlight at the school’s Club Day event.
The event, which was the first big gathering of the school year, was organized by Grade 9 to 12 students in the leadership class. Turnout was so good it was standing room only in the school’s library and adjacent courtyard, Christine McNulty told theRecord.
“It was hundreds of kids. If you looked down the halls of Pearson and Massey wing there was nobody there, they were coming through the library,” she said.
This is the most clubs the school has had on offer in recent memory, McNulty said. There is everything from a bike club and board games club to first aid club and garden club, plus athletic clubs and countless philanthropy clubs, including Free the Children, which raises money for youth in Third World countries, and peer tutoring club, a club run by students for students.
“The neat thing about New Westminster is we’re a city with a small-town mentality and having the one high school, you’ve got everything under one roof and that’s definitely an advantage and a benefit,” McNulty said.
Grade 12 student Olga Radivojevic is no stranger to the clubs at New West secondary. Two years ago, Radivojevic found herself at club day looking for a group to join. She chose a handful of clubs that sounded interesting, went for it, and today she is co-president of the Interact Club.
She encourages everyone to join a club because it offers a sense of community day-to-day school doesn’t.
“One of the reasons I also really liked Interact is because I felt like I was part of a team, and I really liked that atmosphere and feeling that belonging,” Radivojevic said. “It makes school more interesting.”
Radivojevic added she’s stuck with Interact because it allows her to contribute to both her school community and the community at large.
