For students coming from abroad or from other schools, MVHS may seem like a very intimidating place that takes a bit time to adjust to, whether it be the language, environment, or academics. However, with the New Student Support Club on campus, these struggles can be easily overcome as the club officers try to reach out to and connect with these students.
The New Student Support Club is dedicated to helping students coming from abroad or other schools to Monta Vista, offering not only translation services and academic support to students, but also hosting social and volunteering events for them to participate in as well.
Officers encourage students to join the club by visiting ELD (English Language Development) classes or asking ELD teachers to help promote the club to their students. Many students also joined the club together in groups.
Senior and officer Amber Hu, who was in charge of the latest meeting, described a bit about the club.
“The goal of the club is to help new Monta Vista students be more open to try new things and attend school events,” Hu said. “I wanted to become an officer to help people connect with each other, and for them to be able to experience school events.”
The club meets every other week. At some meetings, officers give presentations about aspects of different cultures and hold activities correspondingly. For example, for Thanksgiving, officers presented about the origins of the national holiday and provided traditional Thanksgiving food to complete the experience. At other meetings, club members can hang out with each other while eating snacks officers provide for them.
As for other special events, Hu described the pre-Homecoming game event the officers had planned for the members this semester.
“We were planning to have a gathering, or party, before the Homecoming game,” Hu said. “But because the Homecoming game got cancelled [due to the poor air quality], we had to cancel our party too.”
Though this special event had unfortunately been cancelled, the officers of the New Student Support Club have much more planned for their members in the near future, and are constantly open to helping new students on campus.
