Club campaigners

Several clubs work towards activist causes on campus and beyond

The Jewish Student Union is the Palo Alto High School branch of the NCSY, which is an international organization that works to “connect, inspire and empower Jewish President Arielle Blumenfeld hands out cos- teens,” according to its website. The tumes to club members for the Jewish holiday Purim. Photo: Annelise Balentine club was revived this year by junior Arielle Blumenfeld after the former presidents stepped down.

“When I found out that the presidents didn’t want to run the club anymore, it, at least for me, was a bit heartbreaking,” Blumenfeld said. “Especially because I really love being Jewish, and I feel like Judaism is a very important part of who I am, and I’m sure that I wasn’t alone in that.”

The club’s goal, according to Blumenfeld, is to maintain a Jewish community at Paly and fight the growing antisemitism in the world.

“A really big part of it is making sure that we’re standing up against antisemitism by realizing that we have that community,” Blumenfeld said.

The club provides bagels and activities every week, and is working on planning bigger projects for the semester.

“It’s just that being Jewish anywhere is a very scary thing sometimes and to make sure that we have that support,” Blumenfeld said. “A stable community — it’s the most important thing.”

Paly Bring Change to Mind club attends the national Bring Change to Mind summitt at Oracle Park. (Photo courtesy of Rachel Ellisen)

Bring Change to Mind works to spread awareness about mental health, according to vice president Rachel Ellisen. “The mission, basically the mission statement I would say, is just increasing conversation around mental health, mental illnesses, and just ending the stigma surrounding mental health, and just opening conversation, letting everyone know that they’re not alone,” Ellisen said.

Paly’s Bring Change to Mind club was started by current president Eva Salvetierra’s sister seven years ago, and was the first high school branch of the larger Bring Change to Mind organization, which was started by actress Glenn Close.

In the past, the club has held events surrounding mental health such as having stands with various activities and hosting Close as a guest speaker. Most recently, the club hosted Bring Change to Mind week, in which they held a different event every day.

“For the rest of this year, we want to involve as many students as possible, students not in the club,” Ellisen said. “We want to involve [them] this week because we’ll have like an event every day and we just want to get the word out about the club, we want more members to join to increase conversation.”

The Socioeconomic Inequality Club was started by juniors Leena Hussein and Elena Brierley-Green last year with the goal of spreading awareness of inequalities in the Bay Area and holding events such as donation drives.

“That was always a goal that we wanted to pursue in high school and life in general, especially for me having like parents who grew up pretty poor and stuff — I just wanted to help others,” Hussein said.

Last year, the club hosted a guest speaker from the Ecumenical Hunger Program, which is an organization that tries to alleviate poverty in East Palo Alto, and held two donation drives.

It also participated in a program to write letters to children living in poverty.

“Holding those events is not only beneficial to the community, it’s also really good team bonding and getting to know people in the club and stuff,” Hussein said. “That’s also really fun.”

In the future, the club plans to continue holding donation drives and spreading awareness of socioeconomic inequalities.

The Socioeconomic Inequality Club poses with donations from their 2020 drive. (Photo courtesy of Leena Hussein)

Black Student Union co-president Maia Johnsson said the BSU acts as a place where she can connect with other Black students and feel comfortable being herself.

“BSU is just here to create this nice space for Black students at Congressional candidate Ajwang Rading Paly to bond and cre- speaks at an event hosted by the Black ate a community of Student Union. Photo: Leena Hussein people where they feel like they always have someone to talk to and that they know it’s just an open space that they can really be themselves in,” Johnsson said.

Last year, the club attended conferences and protests and even held a protest of its own in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.

Johnsson said that the club has had higher turnout this year than in years past, and the club is hoping to continue to grow as well as continuing to hold community bonding events and create a welcoming space for Black students. The Asian American Student Union has always served as a safe space for Asian-American Paly students to gather, but the The Asian American Student Union gathers outmission of the club has recently side their classroom for a photo. (Photo courtesy of Emily Yun) expanded to include activism, according to AASU vice president Micaiah Acosta.

“I think Paly will see that we’re not just the club who brings the students together,” Acosta said. “We also have a mission of bringing awareness to social justice problems and bringing justice for people who have been through Asian hate.”

For instance, last year, the AASU held a Zoom meeting with the Paly administration to educate administrators about microaggressions towards the Asian-American community.

According to Acosta, the club is looking to continue to advocate for the Asian-American community and raise awareness during this semester and beyond.

“We’re really working more toward the social justice aspect, and doing projects that’ll help raise money for nonprofits and just bring more awareness to how someone can be an ally,” Acosta said.

Girls Who Code was started last school year by juniors Tess Bowen and Annum Hashmi to engage girls in coding, a subject traditionally dominated by men. “Our mission is to build a safe and supportive environment to teach girls about the fundamentals of coding,” Hashmi said.

The club was started after both presidents participated in the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program in 2020, and were inspired to start a similar club at Paly, according to Hashmi.

In the past, they have worked on projects such as building a chatbot and creating animations, and they are currently working on coding websites.

“This semester, we aim to finish building personal websites as well as a website for our club to showcase member’s projects and invite guest speakers,” Hashmi said.

Girls Who Code club works on their personal websites at a club meeting. Photo: Lauren Wong)