Cypress Woods Key Club June Newsletter

June 2015

The official newsletter of the Cypress Woods High School Key Club.

KEY FACTS

The ‘Key’ to a Successful Summer: Service

IN THIS ISSUE

6

The Spirit of Service How our club maintains club spirit over the summer.

8

The ‘Key’ Is Dedication A Rep explains how we keep members active through the summer.

9

Secrets of a Secretary Our Secretary describes how DCON made a difference for her, Volume 4, Issue 3 July 5, 2015

Contributions Articles Cara Lucker Joshua Goodwin Emily Morris Sharon Zhou Nikita Dhar Nirav Lalsinghani

President’s Letter Leia George Photos Cara Lucker Joshua Goodwin Will Cowden Felicia Hernandez Gina Zhang Jordan Miller

IN THIS ISSUE...

3 Contact Information 4 President’s Letter 5 July at a Glance 6 The Spirit of Service 7 A Vacation of Volunteering 8 The ‘Key’ Is Dedication 9 Secrets of a Secretary 10 Summer Service: And Why It Matters 11 How DCON Helped Me

2

Contact Information Cy Woods Key Club Officers PRESIDENT

HISTORIAN

REPRESENTATIVE COORDINATOR

Leia George leiageorge10@gmail. com 832-515-6928

Gina Zhang gina_zhang2008@ hotmail.com 832-773-3228

Kishan Solanki kishan.sol99@gmail. com 281-904-8652

TREASURER VICE PRESIDENT Abhinav Ashar abhinav.ashar@ hotmail.com 713474-3494

BUILDER’S CLUB REPRESENTATIVE James Keiser jamesdkeiser@ gmail.com 832-622-7413

SECRETARY

JUNIOR SECRETARY

Sharon Zhou happysharonzh@ yahoo.com 281-346-9218

Jocelyn Yao

EDITOR

Jordan Miller jmiller290@gmail. com 281-733-7616

Ashley Kawakubo akawakubo98@ hotmail.com 281-733-0959

WEBMASTER

Joshua Goodwin 713-252-9943 joshua.goodwin98@ gmail.com

Division 3N Lieutenant Governor Ian Sims Ian Sims is Division 3N’s new Lieutenant Governor. He has succeeded the past LTG, Amy Jiang, who is now one of the eleven International Trustees for Key Club International. During our last PCM in June, members from Division 3N voted on a Division Mascot, which is now a Lion, and also Division colors, which are red and yellow. Ian can be reached at 3n.iansims@ gmail.com and on the phone at 281-979-6275.

Texas-Oklahoma District Staff Governor Secretary Treasurer Editor Convention Liason Technology Producer

Rachel Iselin Crystal Loh Emily Zhao Matthew Riley Megan Reynosa

Governor@tokeyclub.com Secretary@tokeyclub.com Treasurer@tokeyclub.com Editor@tokeyclub.com cl@tokeyclub.com

Brendon Nguyen

btnguyen.kc@gmail.com

3

A letter from your

Club President D

ear Key Clubbers, Hope everyone is having a good summer break! I have quite a lot to talk about with you. First on the agenda is the need for more service events. We are currently lacking in the amount of service events happening in our community. It’s funny because even though the school year ended it seemed like our service also stopped. The Cy Woods Key Club officers are coming up with ideas and events to start us off on this next year but we still need your help. Please email any events to the Gmail if you find one. Remember there is no end date for service, only a beginning one.

We are also having a slight change in next year’s Key Club.

We will not be allowing any parents to be members on our Facebook page. This is for one simple reason, you should be responsible. I know this seems a little extreme but we would like our Key Club members to be proactive in asking questions and signing up for events; you are a member in this club, not your mom. We also ask that when you send questions that it be from members and not from parents.

We want our High School Key Club members to be more active and involved in the upcoming year. This will not only help you to be more Photo by Jordan Miller involved, but also increase your enthusiasm for Key Club in general.

We will have our key club website updated after all meetings with any necessary and relevant information.

Lastly, there are many projects and events that your officer board has planned for the upcoming year. We are not only participating in the Cy-Woods Wildcat Festival, but we are hosting an event– a Car Smash! This is so we can raise funds for our club and also take part in smashing a car, which sounds pretty cool to me. We will also have a t-shirt design picked out soon, as well as monthly socials and events. This next year is going to be a great one. Keep looking for updates on the Facebook page and see you soon!

Yours in Service,

Leia George Cy-Woods Key Club President

Leia’s Laughs A Joke of the Month from our Key Club President.

Noah’s Ark was built by volunteers. The Titanic was built by Professionals.

4

July at a Glance Event Schedule

Tuesday, july 28th: Technology Conference at Cy Woods, shifts from 7 AM to 1:30 PM and also from 1 PM to 4 PM. Lunch will be provided, WEDNESDAY, JULY 29TH: Technology Conference continues at Cy Woods, shifts from 7 AM to 1:30 PM and also from 1 PM to 4 PM. Lunch will be provided.

OTHER EVENTS: Keep an eye on the Facebook page and Signupgenius for more event updates.

JULY REMINDERS

Officers- There is an online meeting on Facebook on July 18th from 4 PM to 5 PM. Reps and Officers- Remember, articles are due on the 24th at 10PM to the gmail (cywoodskeyclub@gmail. com).

Members- Be sure to volunteer this summer. If you get your hours done during the free time you have over vacation, you’ll have more time for studying during the fall semester.

5

The Spirit of Service How a Sophomore Defines Service over the Summer.

One way to Over the summer, as we all know, it’s difficult to stay connected with school Cara Lucker Sophomore Representative friends.

Everyone has their own plans that tend to overlap, and it makes it hard to catch up- let alone run a club.

Despite these challenges, here at Cy Woods we keep up the spirit of volunteering all summer long. We do this by staying connected with each other, and mix in fun with volunteering.

One of the ways we stay connected is by hanging out with each other over the summer. We accomplish this by planning socials.

At these socials, we just talk together play games, and while we do this it gives us the opportunity to talk about projects. This opportunity helps us have ideas to draw from in the upcoming year. If we didn’t plan these socials our friendships would fade; eventually it would become harder in the fall to get things done rather than being able to move efficiently. Another thing we do is have meetings online.

Having meetings online helps us stay connected when we aren’t all in Cypress. This helps us because it has us talking regularly, so we are constantly sharing new ideas.

For our online meetings we use Facebook, and we also use it to organize events.

We also keep up the spirit by mixing fun with volunteering. One example for me is when we visited

6

an elderly home and talked to all the people there. It was really rewarding because I got to meet so many nice people, and I got to have great conversations with them.

Also when we were there we were able to do crafts with the ladies. I helped them decorate and they told me stories about their grandchildren and families. Hearing the ladies’ talk about their families made me really want to go back and do it again because I really enjoyed their company. This keeps up the spirit

Members of Cy Woods Key Club at a Frozen Yogurt social. Photo by Cara Lucker.

because it reminds us of why we are participating in Key Club, and everything we stand for as a group.

Without fun activities like this I feel like as a group we wouldn’t have as much spirit.

This is why all summer long we stay connected and do fun volunteering projects, so we can have strong spirit. Because of our strong spirit, we are able to help more people and create a bigger impact in our community.

A Vacation of Volunteering Our Webmaster’s Take on Serving Outside of the School Year.

During the long two and a half months of summer all Key Club members experience, Joshua Goodwin some find Junior Representative it difficult to maintain club spirit. Whether it is due to a lack of service events, regular weekly meetings, or even regular communication via social media like Facebook or Remind 101, people tend to drift off from the main body of Key Club. This can be a very bad thing, as service events during the summer still need people to complete them. A lack of spirit also tends to lead to a reduction in membership in the following school year. Thankfully, there are multiple ways our Key Club maintains a sense of solidarity among our members

Division 3N at at previous Telge Park PCM. Photo provided by Joshua Goodwin.

during the summer.

Firstly, the monthly presence of PCMs allows for not only a club spirit to be maintained, but also allows for a larger, more worldly Key Club sense of pride to emerge. For example, members of my division are due to meet up on the 27th of June to discuss our district mascot and colors. We also will decide upon our larger district project.

Team-Building exercises there help bring everyone together as a member of Key Club. The PCM even takes advantage of the great summer weather we are having by being held in the local Telge Park. The PCM is not overly long, but its presence renews everyone present’s sense of spirit for Key Club.

Secondly, Key Club get-togethers during the summer also bring us scattered members of Key Club together. After the PCM, we Key Clubbers will be meeting up and talking

about our plans for the future. By doing so, we put ourselves back into the mindset of service and look to how we can help our community in the next year. Without these monthly meeting it would be close to impossible to get straight back to the normal flow of service during the school year, especially for non-officers, Lastly, team-building exercises and excursions lead to everyone having a good time. Things like paintball develop a strong sense of camaraderie between the members of the club, and build trust and leadership skills among Key Club members. They also are just fun to do, and encourage us Key Clubbers to remain in Key Club and hangout with our fellow members. While it may be difficult to maintain ties to Key Club during these dog days of summer, ample opportunities exist for us to maintain our sense of Key Club pride.

7

The ‘Key’ Is Dedication How a Sophomore Rep Keeps Her Spirits High During The Summer.

Over the summer, things can get hectic.

With vacations, sports, summerEmily Morris school, Sophomore Representative and Netflix binges, it’s easy to forget about things involved with school, like Key Club. However, we have ways to prevent our members from losing their focus. We don’t want our loyal Key Club members to stray away completely in the summertime, but we also want them to relax.

One of the ways we officers maintain spirit throughout our club is we offer many fun volunteer opportunities, such as the opportunity to work at local swim meets and neighborhood parades celebrating the Fourth of July. We ensure that these volunteer

8

opportunities will be a blast so they can add to our members’ summer memories while still helping the community. These opportunities are a win-win situation for our volunteers; the more fun the events are, the more likely our Key Clubbers will be willing to give up their time to participate in during the summer.

Another way we have been trying to maintain our spirit is by opening up PCMs for all of our officers and representatives to attend. This way, our club’s leaders will get to go to the PCM and become not only more enthusiastic about Key Club, but also more inspired to spread this enthusiasm. PCMs are a great and fun way to get our officers motivated and involved, plus they’re an awesome learning opportunity.

Also to keep the Key Club spirit alive, we have been given the opportunity to organize in person and online meetings between all of

our officers. This way, we’re able to share ideas that benefit our club, plan out new events and service projects for the upcoming school year (and get excited about them), and stay in touch with one another.

If we didn’t have these meetings, chances are the upcoming school year would be a little unorganized and unplanned. Also, if we didn’t continue our meetings over the summer like we do during the school year, our officers would be out of routine and less motivated to attend the meetings during the school year.

As a close-knit club, we LOVE enthusiasm, and our very foundation for this club is built upon the spirit of service. Without it, Key Club wouldn’t be the fun, inspiring, and positive club that it is. If we want to make a positive impact on our community, we need to stay positive and spirited ourselves. Let’s stay active, and make this summer a Key Club summer.

Secrets of a Secretary Sharon Zhou Reveals How DCON Helped Her Fulfill Her New Duties.

Before DCON, I thought I was prepared for becoming secretary.

Sharon Zhou I was Secretary ready to take on the challenge of a demanding position, and I felt well-trained by Jacque, the previous secretary. I was curious as to what DCON would teach me about my position. While I didn’t doubt the people going nor their skills, I was interested in what they would be able to bring to the table. These thoughts continued to run through my head until the moment right before I entered the Secretary Forum at DCON. Although I had brought a pen and notebook with me, I wondered how much I was going to actually write.

15 minutes into the forum, and all those thoughts were long gone from my head. I was furiously scratching down everything I was hearing into my notebook and worrying that I wouldn’t be able to read my handwriting later because I was writing so fast. After hearing that the reporting format would be changing for the upcoming school year, I felt like I was thrown a curveball. I worried that everything that Jacque had prepared me for would change, and a year’s worth of training would all be for nothing.

Even after the forum was over, I was still in kind of a daze. Did I write down everything that had changed? I didn’t copy anything down wrong, right? Did I pick

up the right papers explaining the new changes? As Ashley, my junior secretary, and I walked side by side out the room and down the hallway, I felt a brief flutter of panic. How was I supposed to train Ashley when I just now learned that I had to do something completely different from what I knew? I had to train myself first!

Flash forward to present day.

I’ve now turned in two monthly reports and am putting the third one together. The first report was a whirlwind. Somehow, between a cello recital and studying for AP tests (shout-out to all the secretaries who had AP tests on Monday), I managed to send off the April monthly report before May 5. Yes, there were still moments when I was bombarding Jacque with messages at 12:00 AM asking her whether I was doing the right thing. Yes, I kept referring to my DCON notes.

But yes, I also turned it in on time.

The second one was also crazy. It

Cy Woods Key Club after just arriving at DCON. Photo taken by Will Cowden.

was the first one under the new reporting format, and the notebook with all my DCON notes in it was my Holy Grail. I never stopped referring to the notes I took at the forum and trying to decipher my rushed chicken scratch to figure out whether I was on the right track. But again, somehow, that report also got turned in on time.

Looking back, I definitely shouldn’t have worried about it so much. Even though the week before a report is due can be incredibly stressful, I had learned everything that I needed to know through both Jacque and DCON. Although I had worried that I hadn’t heard everything at the forum, I shouldn’t have doubted myself; I always found what I needed to know in my notes or from the forum’s PowerPoint. DCON gave me the resources I needed to complete my job and do it well.

Now, as I prepare to send off my third monthly report, I have more confidence and know what to do.

9

Members of Cy Woods Key Club at DCON. Photo taken by Felicia Hernandez.

Summer Service: And Why It Matters

A Junior Rep Describes the Importance of Summer Volunteering.

Cypress Woods Key Club is always encouraging members to continue their volunteer work during the summer, in addition to the school year. While members tend to meet their hour requirements during the year, Nikita Dhar they sometimes forget the Junior Representative importance of volunteering during the summer, and this can be detrimental to any club.

The summer is the prime time for volunteering.

Without school, and endless hours of homework to complete, our schedules are much less crammed, and therefore, we have much more time to volunteer. We must take advantage of this extra time we have, and put those hours to good use. Instead of lying in bed until the late afternoon being entirely unproductive, we could go out to places where help is needed and put our teenage energy to use.

Furthermore, the summer is a good time for volunteering because many organizations are in need of helpful volunteers during this time. Communities such as Coles Crossing tend to hold events over the summer for which they need volunteers, and it is

10

important our Key Club is able to provide those events with the necessary volunteers. In addition, it is good to volunteer in the summer, because you can volunteer in places other than your community. Although it is fun to volunteer for places near home, sometimes it can be nice to venture out to another place to volunteer for a change. This new place can be a new community or even a new country. There are tons of opportunities for volunteering abroad available for teenagers who want to make a difference in places outside of the United States. The summer is the perfect time to venture out to these other countries and learn about their way of life while volunteering there.

After a quick Google search I learned there are many different organizations that support volunteering abroad. You simply choose where you would like to volunteer (from a list of many countries in need), then you choose how long you would like to volunteer, and lastly you choose the timeframe of the year in which you would like to volunteer. Volunteering abroad is especially a good idea because you can take family members and friends along with you. Lying in bed all summer long may be the easier choice, but volunteering during the summer is the right one. It can be difficult at times to push ourselves to go out and volunteer, but it is vital that we do so.

How DCON Helped Me

Key Club members at a forum at DCON, photo taken by Gina Zhang.

How DCON Has Improved the Skills of a Junior Rep. Some people believe that District Convention is all fun and no Nirav Lalsinghani Junior Representative work and that the reason we go to DCON is to enjoy ourselves, get away from school, and relax. I, on the other hand, find District Convention to be the best place to learn new things about the club you participate in, learn easy tips and tricks that make your club look better and run smoother, and offer ways to help you club grow and new ideas for volunteer opportunities and service projects.

This year’s DCON really helped me to become a better officer through many of the forums and other events that were held this

year at District Convention. One of the ways DCON helped me become a better officer was that it taught me how clubs are ranked, informing me that putting in hours on time and turning in articles on time were extremely important. I learned that I should be putting in hours immediately after an event so that our Key Club can climb the ranks and hopefully become of the best Key Clubs in all of Texas and Oklahoma. I also learned that everyone needs to be writing articles and they also need to be turned in on time to make it easy for our club editor to send them to the District Editor.

Along with these important factors, DCON is where I also learned some important communication skills. I personally felt that I was lacking the ability to communicate with my peers and our club sponsors. The great

thing about DCON is that you can learn almost any necessary skill needed to be a great officer. That is why this year I chose to go to the speech forum while at DCON. In the forum, I was taught a lot about how I should communicate along with some great tips to help me not only hold a conversation, but also give me aid in my public speaking since that was one of the skills I was also lacking on. After the forum, I felt a lot more confident in my ability to communicate with my peers and club sponsors and am looking forward to working with them this upcoming year.

All in all, DCON is a great place to meet people, learn, and grow.

For me, DCON has taught me many of the skills I will need in the future and improve on what I need currently.

11

KEY FACTS

CYPRESS WOODS HIGH SCHOOL JUNE 2015