News this week: New clubs, in school COVID cases and more

Bottom left image: With COVID-19 restrictions changing the ability to do school, clubs are scrambling to figure out how to conduct their meetings while being safe. One of the biggest clubs, Best Buddies, seems to have a pretty good grasp. 

Best Buddies chapter president, Brooke Breedlove stated, “This year we are planning on making all events able to be done virtually and in person, that way if we can’t hold them in person, we can still have them just virtually. We want to bring the connectedness and friendship of in-person best buddies to the virtual setting by making activities as normal as can be.” 

Breedlove explained that they would develop alternate options for events in order to stay safe. “Although we may not be able to have our holiday parties & activities in person, we will use breakout rooms on zoom to do normal activities like dance parties, making crafts, bingo, etc. We hope to keep traditions that everyone loves like the holiday party, valentine’s day dance, and more just in a virtual setting,” Breedlove said.

 With interviews being conducted this week, she hopes the 2020-2021 class of best buddies will be the most exciting yet.

Top right image: Although clubs are facing many restrictions, that hasn’t stopped new ones from forming. Junior Elias Munoz has founded North Central’s chapter of Business Professionals of America. 

BPA is an organization which focuses on developing and empowering student leaders to discover their passion and change the world. It does not only offer opportunities related to leadership, learning and service, but it also encourages its members to grow as professionals and as people.

 Even though BPA offers a wide variety of events and opportunities, a majority of the focus lies on competitive events since students can compete in the Regional Leadership Conference and work their way to qualify to state and even nationals. 

“Personally, I got involved in BPA during my freshman year when I was introduced to it by a presentation given in the JEL Career Center, and it has genuinely changed my life. I have never thought that I could get involved in an organization where I could learn as much while at the same time meeting new people and having fun,” Munoz said.

 He hopes that he and his new members can advance all the way to nationals this year.

Bottom right image: When in-person classes started again with hybrid learning , many believed it was inevitable that at some point there would be a case of COVID-19 in the school. What was not expected by many was for that case to occur on the first day back.

 Junior Sideny Dixon was one of the first students to be “contact traced,” a process that selects students that may have been in contact with infected students and sends them home to avoid further spread. 

Dixon described her experience stating, “ I  got pulled out of class in the middle of the day and I was really confused. There was a group of about 10 of us and we were taken to the auditorium where there were even more kids. They then explained to us each one by one what had happened but it kinda got out of hand and they ended up letting me leave.”

This experience was frustrating to Dixon. “ I was really upset because it was only the second day of school and I didn’t think it was fair because even if I had a negative test I wouldn’t have been able to go back which didn’t make sense to me. It ended up being alright though, and my test was negative and I ended up being able to vacation due to my required absence,” Dixon said.

She is glad she was safe, but is against the idea of students going back to school without more secure measures, and hopes everyone can stay in school safely.

Top left image: With Joe Biden recently being declared the president-elect, and the current incumbent, Donald Trump not yet conceding, the election process seems to still not be complete. Senior and president of the Young Democrats club Claire Yockey had much to say regarding the situation.

 “I think it is almost premature to reflect on the election because the process is far from over. Recounts, lawsuits, and more denial will come. That said, I do not think the outcome will change at all. Biden won the presidency, democrats the house, and republicans the senate,” Yockey explained.

Yockey was largely  pleased with the result of the presidential election, but not the many other elections. “I think even with the runoffs in Georgia, republicans will get the senate. I am pleasantly surprised by how little violence there has been by the losing team, but that may be in part because Trump hasn’t conceded. As a democrat I am disappointed by the margins in which we won. Leading up to the election there was an anticipation of a blue wave sweeping over the county, but on every level it was closer than anticipated. Don’t get me wrong I’m still incredibly happy that Biden won, but the thought that half of America still stands for Trump and all his racism, misogyny, and bigotry is disappointing,” Yockey said.