February 2020 | Vol 19, Issue 10
SPREADING THE LOVE
Key Club International | CNH District | Region 3 Division 30 South | Oxford Academy Key Club
TABLE TABLE OF OF CONTENTS CONTENTS
EN JANUARY… 5-6
J
EDITOR’S NOTE 4
1
EXEC
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
ELECTIONS
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7-8
JANUARY CALENDAR 17 CONTACT
OXFORD
INFO
NTRANCE EXAM
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15
SOUND THE ALARM 16
JAUARY DCM: IT’S A GIRL 9-14
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PRESIDENT’S CORNER DCON DCON, or district convention, is one of my favorite Key Club events of the year. Whether you have friends from throughout the district, or are just a member attending because you are interested in seeing Key Club’s full size, it is sure to be a wonderful experience. At DCON, the new district executives are elected. 2 delegates are sent from each dues paid club to vote; I’m very excited for this upcoming district election because I personally know more of the people who are running. :))) If you are not a delegate, DCON has a lot of different workshops that members can attend. Some of these are dedicated to a specific position such as president or secretary, while others are more focused on how Key Club works and how to maximize your Key Club experience. I’m very happy that OAKC has 12 members attending DCON in comparison to last year’s 3. They’ll get to watch all of the LTGs and seniors retire and see how the CNH district starts the new term.
Tobi Yao OAKC President
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EDITOR’S NOTE NEARING THE END It’s hard for me to imagine what my high school experience would have been like without Key Club. Would I have joined Gender Equality Club? Would I have been more dedicated to NHS? Would I have been the same person I am now? The truth is, I don’t really know how to answer these questions, and I don’t think I would really want to either. With the 2019-2020 term soon coming to a close, all I can do is look back at these last 4 years and engulf myself in nostalgia. And I know I’m not alone in this. I know for a fact that every Key Club senior is currently feeling the same way. And its all because in dedicating time to our community, our Key Club community has given back to us. There’s so much I’ve already said in previous Editor’s Notes and previous articles, and there’s still so much I have left to say about this club. But I think its best if I leave that content for the last newsletter of the term (which is too soon for my own liking). So for now, let us all enjoy the last few weeks of this term and make them the most memorable yet.
Natalie Melendez OAKC Bulletin Editor
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JANUA NEW BEGINNING: Claire Lee | 10 | Publicist 5...4...3...2...1… HAPPY NEW YEAR’S!!
That’s how the new decade started 31 days ago. Here I am today on the last day of the first month of this new year writing my monthly articles for Key Club. However, this feels different than the rest. New year comes with different friendships, different memories, different failures, and different successes. What has not changed is my desire to continue on with my journey in Key Club and do my best to make a difference in the organization I love with my entire heart. I should set new goals and know exactly what to do in the future for the new term. The truth is I don’t. This next term I want to go with the flow, go to events that truly make me happy and feel like I belong, and do what is right for both me and my family. 2020 didn’t start off as good as it could have and although it holds a lot of tragedies and deaths, I know, we know that determination is the way to success and a life that we will be satisfied in. An old bad thing, or in this case multiple bad things can hold us back and put a bad impression of the rest of the year. The beginning doesn’t define the end, and together we can make not only Key Club have the best term in history, but also bring happiness to our community and make the world at least a little bit a better place :”)
SPEEDY TIMES: Timmy Bui | 11 | Secretary
As the decade dawned on us, I was looking forward to a solid start of 2020 for Key Club. I had no idea that this would be one of the most work-intensive months as a club secretary. My Distinguished Secretary Award was due on the 25th by 11:59 PM, so naturally, I began it on the 25th at about 1:00 PM. One of the most stressful times of the year indeed, and I don’t very easily get stressed. I ended up using my time wisely and finishing. Despite the fact that I already know that I messed up on two of the rubric items, I feel entirely accomplished. Nobody can say that they’ve started and completed 42 pages of a portfolio in 10 and a half hours as efficiently as I did on that day. Also, the Member Recognition Program was due at the end of this month, so I began to work on it on the 30th. It wasn’t as much of a time crunch as the other award submission, but it definitely was irritating to determine and categories all of these requirements for more than 30 of our members. Meanwhile, I completed the January MRF alongside the MRP 3 days early since they correlate closely. It’s funny because in preparing for my president election, I was asked “How will you prevent procrastination?” and my answer was “I won’t” and these two experiences basically sum that up. In other news, the January DCM was nice. Some games were okay, but the real kicker was the “You Can’t Say That” game that took place during the entire DCM. The word was “like,” and that day I learned how natural it is to slip in a “like” in your language and how easy it is to get other people to say it. Thanks for the 4 necklaces, Tobi.
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ARY... IN REVIEW: Jacquelyn Nguyen | 10 | Publicist
Happy Lunar New Year everybody! During January I went to a lot of events, like Sound the Alarm on January 18th, Servathon on January 20th, and the Oxford Entrance Exam on January 25th. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to January DCM because my family and I were celebrating New Year’s then. However, I hope that everyone who attended had a fun time socializing with not only our division, but Division 13 South as well!
Although there were many Sound the Alarms earlier in the year, especially around November, I didn’t go to them because I was attending Saturday Academy instead, which overlapped with the event. Finally, I was able to go, and it was interesting to see not just Key Club volunteers, but also Red Cross volunteers from different high schools. The volunteers were split up into about 22 groups, with 5-6 volunteers per group. Somehow, I managed to be in the same group as the president of Santiago’s Red Cross club, Danca Nguyen. He was the only teen volunteer that had attended multiple Sound the Alarms, as the rest of the high school volunteers were first-timers like me. We also had two adult volunteers who helped us install the smoke alarms in the Stanton neighborhood. We walked up to 25 houses, but only 2 of them let us go into their homes to install free smoke detectors. I’d definitely go to another Sound the Alarm in the future, not only because they gave us free breakfast and lunch, but because I’m able to directly impact people’s lives by making their homes safer. Servathon, like last year, was disorderly in that we somehow always manage to run out of supplies. Last year, I think we ran out of jelly; but this year, we ran out of bread. During the allotted 10 -minute break, a volunteer actually had to go out and purchase more bread in order for us to continue our service project. Overall, January was full of fun albeit a little chaotic.
IN REVIEW: Jennifer Vo | 11 | Vice Pres.
Hi friends!! January was zoomed by very quickly but I had a great time!! There were a lot of fun things that happened this month. There was OA test proctoring, which was really exciting, and I got to meet all the cute and nervous sixth graders in AUHSD. We participated in Club Refresh, and my brother finally joined Key Club and paid his dues!! He is very late. We had January DCM with 300 attendees, and I was super happy to meet my ninja friends again! We partnered with National Honors Society and Culinary Club during Servathon to make over 500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I finally submitted that awful Distinguished Vice President portfolio and am now a free woman. Also, club elections happened and I’m so proud of everyone that won. I have complete faith that next year’s OAKC board will excel and bring our club to new heights! Also Claire’s birthday happened so now our club publicist is 16 years old!!! In all a lot of things happened and January and I couldn’t pick one to write about so I just wrote about all of them. Zoom zoom.
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EXEC ELECTIONS
Tobi Yao | 11| President Last year, I stood in front of OAKC at a meeting and ran for the position of president. My opposing candidate had been on board longer and was a year older than me, but I prepared the best I could for my speech and caucus. This year, I led the elections. Since we had so many candidates, elections took place over three weeks in the month of January; I was very happy to see so many underclassmen willing to take the initiative to run for an executive position.
who of the two candidates would be elected. Both Lydia and Claire have proved themselves to be trustworthy and organized over the past term and I was certain that no matter who won, OAKC would be in good hands for the next term. Lydia Lee was elected to be the next secretary.
President and VP elections were held on the same day. Timmy Bui ran unopposed for the position of president, and he is now my president elect. Half of his speech was a rap; I’m looking forward to seeing where he brings OAKC under his leadership. VP had three We had the most candidates for the position candidates: our current treasurer and two of treasurer. Four people ran, including a current project chairs. Kenny Le was elected freshman, Christina Nguyen. I was very im- to be VP for the next term. pressed at all of their caucus sessions since they probably went in not knowing what ex- Congratulations to Lance, Lydia, Kenny, and actly to expect. Ultimately, Lance Sahagun, Timmy! I love you guys and I have complete an incoming senior, was elected. faith that OAKC will only continue to grow in the 2020-2021 term! For the position of secretary, I had no idea
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Giang Nguyen | 11 | Historian With the next term coming up soon, Key Club has gone through the election season to choose the executive officers that will be leading the club. This term’s elections have been especially exciting, with tough competition on all sides. There were numerous qualified candidates that have worked hard all year long, and each deserve to go even further as executive officers. However, there can only be one for each position. With these elections, the members have put in their votes and it is only a matter of time until we get to see the results for ourselves. Oxford Key Club’s elections have been tough for me, as I supported many of the candidates that ran in each position. Some candidates were long-time members that have dedicated a lot of time and effort into Key Club. On the other hand, other candidates were fresh faces that have been working especially hard during this term and seem to have a bright future ahead of them. But no matter what the results turn out to be, I fully support each and every one of the candidates and will be proud of whoever gets to lead the club in the next term.
Magnolia Key Club’s election as well. One thing that was remarkable to me was how different their elections were compared to Oxford’s. While Oxford holds elections for different positions on separate occasions, Magnolia combines all the elections into one session on a single day. The Magnolia elections also comes out with the results right at the end of the election, while Oxford elections take some days to reveal the results. Nonetheless, the Magnolia election was electrifying from start to end. Although I was not allowed to cast a vote in another school club’s election, I was still able to take part in the caucus sessions. Listening to the candidates’ excellent speeches and their outstanding caucuses made me realize that I had no idea who would win. So when the new executive board for Magnolia Key Club was revealed, let me just say that I was not physically or mentally prepared for what to expect. In conclusion, I would like to thank all the members that came out to vote in the elections, and congratulations to all the new execute elects. I can tell that this next Key Club term is definitely going to be something else.
Additionally, I had the honor of being part of
James Nguyen | 11 | Historian This month Oxford Academy Key Club held its elections for executive positions for the 20202021 term! There were many qualified applicants from our current board as well as some other ambitious faces. Our elections were held each week during this month at our general meetings which was turned into a voting house. Each candidate had the opportunity to show us what they got (in the span of about 2 minutes) and as the audience we fired off questions during the caucus session to test their abilities and qualifications. It was a very close match for all po-
sitions as each candidate was so well prepared and fit the job. Voting was a challenge!
There were also elections for executive positions at other schools as well this month including Magnolia etc. It was a very interesting month seeing these members give it their all in a display of their Key Club devotion and knowledge as well as plans and ambitions. I’m looking forward to seeing them in the upcoming term and what they will bring to our club.
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JANUARY DCM:
JANUARY DCM: I
Victoria Truong | 10 | Tech Chair Welcome back, fellow Sunshines, to our second club article of the year! I hope everyone’s been doing well and contributing to our division goal of 30,000 hours before DCON! Spoiler alert, we have already surpassed that, but don’t let that stop you from coming out to our amazing events! Yes, I’m talking to you new dues-paid members who joined at Club Refresh, come on out! Anyways, let’s cut to the chase, shall we? My article of the month of January is on...January DCM: It’s a Girl! In case anyone didn’t already know, a DCM stands for a Division Council Meeting that is inclusive to all members of Key Club, whether someone is an executive, a board, or a general member, and you get to make new friends from other schools in Division 30 South. If you didn’t get the chance to attend this baby shower, shame on you! Just kidding, but those of you who didn’t show up to this big event really missed out. Last month at December DCM, our new Lt. Governor was born and happens to be our very own OAKC Vice President, Jennifer Vo, so at this month’s DCM the D30S Suns celebrated her election as the LTG for the 2020-2021along with D13S Ninjas and their LTG-elect. Located at Don Knabe Community Regional Park in Cerritos, the DCM was set in this moderately sized stage with rows of both D30S and D13S members seated within the baby-showered themed area complete with pink ribbons, balloons, and big balloon letters spelling out “IT’S A GIRL”! Admission to the DCM required you to either donate household items to the Kiwanis Family House such as tissues, disinfectant wipes, stuffed animals, etc for service hours, or to bring $3. Additionally, boba, spam musubi, and polaroids were sold by both divisions for DCM attendees to further enjoy their time and capture the memories with cute photos. It was also requested that the Key-Clubbers who attended should wear pink attire, as the theme was based on the birth of two girls, after all.
birth name “newb waists emba nifer V
After group over t perien as giv dead joined game servic and p
Brief o up yo group group parts; while whole while game
At the certa I think the highlight of this event might’ve been the introduction to the first of
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: IT’S A GIRL
IT’S A GIRL
of the two girls by Ali Al-Saleem and Krezzia Basilio. When their es were announced, the two girls walked on stage with whole born” outfit on: pacifiers, PJs, and big diapers wrapped around their s! That was an amusing sight to see even though I got second-hand arrassment, but that’s alright because we love our LTG-elect, JenVo!
the wild introduction, the two divisions separated into their separate ps to start the actual DCM and go over the agenda. Ali just went the usual information with volunteers to talk about their previous exnces at past events and then he mentioned upcoming ones as well ving us a reminder of the division goals to achieve before the DCON dline. Following the individual DCMs, the D30S Suns and D13S Ninjas d together again to begin the ice-breaker/baby-shower themed es. The plan for the day was to play two games, then participate in a ce project involving writing Valentine’s Day cards for the elderly, play one last game, the relay race.
overview of the games: the first one was to get in a big group, blow our balloon, pop it between another partner, and race to finish as a p first, and the second game was a dance-off between four large ps and the last group standing won. Lastly, the relay race was two ; the first stage was to spin 10 times and walk to the next person balancing a ball on a spoon, and the second stage was to get a e line of five people to crawl beneath each other, one by one each holding a balloon without making it pop. It was a pretty hectic e but it was definitely interesting to spectate.
e end of the day, a lot of us left content with the event and it was ainly a memorable baby shower/DCM, especially since it was the f the decade.
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Tiffany Ong | 10| Historian On January 26th this year, the January DCM was held at Don Knabe Community Regional Park. It was a joint DCM with D13S, the ninjas! :) Before the DCM, I went to Lydia’s house to make spam musubi for our fundraiser, with Grace and Kenny. I got there late, so I expected them to be done making all 50 of the spam musubi. But I learned that they only made one. Only one blob of rice that was wrapped in plastic wrap. Technically, we had to leave in about 20 minutes in order to get to the DCM on time, meaning we had to make 50 spam musubis in 20 minutes. I had no idea how to make it, since I had never made it before, so I was struggling. I was super incompetent and slow, according to Kenny. :( He started yelling at Grace, Lydia, and me like Gordon Ramsay in Hell’s Kitchen. He also started yelling at everyone in viet at some point, which was super funny.
about half of the spam musubi, so we could start selling it at the fundraiser. We were so surprised when they almost sold out right when we got there. Then, soon after, Lydia and Kenny arrived with the other batch of the spam musubi. It sold out so quickly, which really shocked me. Before the DCM, we were afraid that we wouldn’t sell out and would have A LOT leftover. Thankfully, that didn’t happen.
After we sold out of all the spam musubi, I was really happy because I thought that the fundraiser was really successful. But after we were reimbursed for all the spam, seaweed, sauce, rice, etc. the profit that we made wasn't as much as I’d hoped. We only made about $40 profit I believe, which I don’t think was worth it for all the work that we put in. We were super stressed and worked really hard to make the spam musubi, but didn’t make much profit. But it was a learning experience. Never fundraise with spam musubi ever again. Too much Anyway, after the whole spam musubi fiasco, bang for too little buck!! T-T Grace and I finally arrived at the DCM with
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Lydia Lee | 10 | Historian January DCM was based off a baby shower theme, where we all were supposed to dress in pale pink colors. However, Oxford Academy Key Club officers and certain members decided to wear baby blue instead because our LTG-Elect is the dad of the club. Along with fun games and activities for the DCM, the most memorable part of the DCM was when we had to make spam masubis for our fundraiser. About a month prior to the DCM, our treasurer asked if anyone would like to help make Spam Masubis for the upcoming DCM. I gladly agreed and decided to lend my house for use and as a place to make the masubis. In the next couple of weeks, we planned the ingredients and recipe to make the food.
the spam masubis. After figuring out how much rice to put into each one, the ingredients began to run out one by one. At this point, we had made around 30 masubis. However, it was almost 1:50, the time we had to leave the house in order to be at the DCM on time. After some thought, Grace and Tiffany left for the DCM with the 30 masubis while Kenny and I stayed behind and made as many more as we could with the remaining ingredients. We ended up making around 20 more and leaving the house within 20 minutes after some slight cleanup. Upon arrival to the park, we needed to walk a bit due to parking at the wrong parking lot. While walking, I managed to curl my eyelashes, without poking any eyes, due to time constraints (impressive).
On the day of, we met up at around 12:15 at my house to make the spam masubis. We started by preparing all the ingredients to put into the spam masubis. This took much longer than predicted and we ended up spending around an hour just for preparing the ingredients in contrast to the original 30 minutes planned for it.
The actual DCM was fun and we were unable to say the word “like” or else we would lose our necklace. The person with the most necklaces at the end was able to win a raffle ticket to win free Crocs. Overall, we didn’t profit much from the fundraiser and had extreme stress preparing and creating the Spam Masubis. Therefore, we learned our lesson and will Then came the process of actually making never do another Spam Masubi Fundraiser.
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Kenny Le | 11 | Project Chair A cold, horrid day with clouds seemingly ready to rain down on the ground bullets of water. My heart shattered in a thousand pieces. Mercy held no judgement that day. Alas, 99 Ranch Supermarket enveloped me in the caring arms of a grandmother. It brought me to my destiny of finding rice ha justs kidding that was fluff to fill up space before the real hook. Do you wash Spam Masubi?? asked a member. We were tasked
with making Spam Masubi (the best that everyone has ever sold btw) for the January DCM. It went perfectly. There were no problems. We time-managed everything perfectly yay! The end. Again jk youll find out with the other articles how it went I didn’t want to repeat what they said! But yeah I want to emphasize the fact that the masubi actually tasted so good like w o w.
Grace Nguyen | 11 | Treasurer Never am I ever making spam masubi again Magnolia KC was nice enough to let us share in my life. For this month’s DCM, OA Key Club their table with them as they sold boba. Big was tasked with cooking spam masubi to sell thanks to them. to raise last minute funds for PTP. I was shocked on how popular the spam After a month of planning, Lydia, Kenny, Tif- masubis were, especially among the ninjas. I fany and I met up at Lydia’s house at around almost sold out on our first batch until Lydia 12PM with our ingredients and cooking uten- and Kenny came with the rest of our spam sils. Little did we know what we were putting masubis. ourselves into. Bueno news! Even though we didn’t make a As soon as we opened the rice cooker, we lot of profit, we sold out within an hour. I’m so realized we didn’t know how to prepare the relieved I didn’t have to take home a whole rice. Lucky enough, Kenny figured out the tray of spam masubi home. Throughout the measurements for rice and water but some- DCM, people would come up to us and ask if how forgot to turn on the rice cooker, so the we had any left. If I knew spam masubi was rice was just sitting in the rice cooker for a going to be this popular, I would’ve started good solid 20 minutes without being cooked. cooking earlier. In the end, I’ve learned my lesson. Spam masubi doesn’t make a lot of We didn’t have the spam and rice prepared profit! Nevertheless, it was a great experiuntil an hour before the DCM. Panicking, we ence. To my future treasurer, don’t sell spam tried to finish making all 100 spam masubis, masubi. It isn’t worth the emotional and but that was clearly not possible, so Tiffany physical stress you put yourself through. and I headed to the DCM first with about 50ish spam masubis to set up our stand and Big thanks for Lydia, Kenny, and Tiffany for sell. helping me out. This fundraiser wouldn’t have been possible without them. Ily guys.
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IN OTHE OXFORD ENTRANCE EXAM Natalie Melendez | 12 | Bulletin Editor With the exception of 9th grade, I’ve helped out at the Oxford Entrance Exam every year. Each one, I’ve been a helper to an Oxford teacher, aiding them in checking in students, passing out and collecting scantrons, and taking the role of official bathroom escort. Despite the fact that each year I see a brand new set of faces, both eager for and terrified of the multicolored test packets in front of them, I experience pretty much the same thing. I take a path down memory lane and visualize my own test day, which was now around 6 years ago! I see myself as a scared little 6th grader in an unknown classroom full of faces I don’t recognize, scared of what my next 6 years before college will look like. Back then, I was a completely different person, scared of everything: public speaking, striking up a conversation with strangers, not fitting in, and so forth. This is why visualizing the past and then seeing the person I am now has never failed to astonish me. I’ve grown so much as an individual during my time at Oxford, and a big part of it is thanks to Key Club. Never in a million years would I think myself capable of sticking with a club throughout the entirety of my high school career, let alone become a board member and perform cheers in PUBLIC. Not gonna lie, I was extremely apprehensive about the club right from the start, but seeing such spirited students and their strong devotion made me stay. I wanted to be one of them! I wanted to break out of my shell and show as much enthusiasm as they did! Luckily for me, my first service event sealed the deal. After attending the HOPE Food Distribution, I felt a sense of fulfillment like no other, and I knew right from that moment that Key Club would come to play a crucial role in my high school experience. Since then, I’ve grown a lot more comfortable with public speaking, talking to new people at service events, showing devotion, and performing *gasp* CHEERS! I’ve just generally become a kinder, more responsible individual. Though I remain relatively quiet in nature and am still scared of MANY things, I know for a fact that I can be a people person when I need to, and that I can be just a bit more outgoing when circumstances require.
So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Key Club. Thank you for shaping me into who I am today, and for making sticking around at Oxford worthwhile.
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ER NEWS...
SOUND THE ALARM Helen Tran | 11 | Project Chair “Sound the Alarm!” “Save a life!” Sound the Alarm is known to be a common Red Cross event. During this event, volunteers help to install FREE smoke alarms for residents within a neighborhood. I was paired with two other students from Pacifica High School as well as three adults. Although the two freshmen from Pacifica were shy at first, they quickly warmed up to me and it was so interesting to get to know them on a more personal level. As for the older adults, although we maintained professional communication, they were still very friendly. Overally, the group dynamic flowed very well and we were able to have a lot of fun while serving the community of Stanton. Teamwork, communication, and patience were all key skills that played a role in the event. Each person played separate roles, so together, we were able to install smoke alarms efficiently. I had the job of assisting with installing, so I would pass the materials to the installer while he stood on the ladder. At one of the last houses, we ran out of smoke alarms, so we all needed to stay patient as we waited for another individual to deliver smoke alarms to the address. We also needed to stay patient with one another because the process was straightforward yet timecomsuming. Our group installed a total of approximately 40 smoke alarms that day.
The event was very eye-opening because of the fact that many houses lacked the proper smoke alarms. A few houses had outdated smoke alarms that were no longer functioning while others did not have any smoke alarms installed in their houses. Smoke alarms are a significant part of household safety because they can warm the house owners of a potential fire disaster while the owners are distracted or asleep. So, it felt very assuring to be able to provide the house owners with functioning smoke alarms that would last another 10 years. In this way, I felt happy to know that the smoke alarms I helped to install could potentially save a life within those future 10 years.
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HOPE FOOD
BREA 8K
22 FEBRUARY DCM
SOON
MORE
EVENTS
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C O N T A C T
PRESIDENT | Tobi Yao tcyao2003@gmail.com VICE PRESIDENT | Jennifer Vo vojenniferv@gmail.com TREASURER | Grace Nguyen 12GNguyen22@gmail.com SECRETARY | Timmy Bui bu1timmybu1@gmail.com BULLETIN EDITOR | Natalie Melendez natalie.melendez@outlook.com TECH CHAIR | Victoria Truong victoriantruong@gmail.com PROJECT CHAIR | Kenny Le Kennl_l@outlook.com PROJECT CHAIR | Helen Tran helentran952@gmail.com HISTORIAN | Lydia Lee LHLee017@gmail.com HISTORIAN | Giang Nguyen giangadonrawr@gmail.com HISTORIAN | James Nguyen verll123@hotmail.com
U S
@oakeyclub
HISTORIAN | Tiffany Ong ongtiffy@gmail.com
Oxford Academy Key Club
PUBLICIST | Claire Lee 0128jil@gmail.com PUBLICIST | Jacquelyn Nguyen bwama123@gmail.com
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SEE YOU NEXT TIME...