During lunch on May 21, Chinese Club announced their new officer team for the 2019-2020 school year to the club members. The officer team had worked together to move through the officer selection process. Applicants were asked to fill out an online application due the week before spring break. The application consisted of questions asking for general information about themselves and their class schedule and extracurriculars for the next school year, as well as questions such as “Why do you want to be an officer?” or “What do you think you would bring to the club?” Club president and senior Jessica Lee describes how the week after spring break, the officer team worked together to evaluate the applications and called in qualified applicants for interviews.

“We all work pretty closely together, like a lot of our roles kind of like overlap and stuff, so we all worked on [the selection process],” Jessica Lee said. “And then each one of [the officers] conducted interviews for the applicants, because they would be like working with [potential new officers].”

Of the applicants, sophomores Elizabeth Lee and Lauren Hwang were selected to be co-presidents for the new school year. Jessica Lee describes how by working with Elizabeth Lee and Hwang the past school year, she believes that the two were very qualified to become the new presidents.

“I feel like they really stepped up and took responsibility, and I feel like they are very organized as to like, if you will delegate a task to them, they will be very responsive, and they will like do it on time,” Jessica Lee said. “They have good communication, which made this year like a joy to like work with everyone and everyone like collaborative.”

As with the qualifications Lee describes the new co-presidents to have, Elizabeth Lee and Hwang believe they’ve learned a lot from Jessica Lee as well as she was very welcoming towards them and responsible.

The new co-presidents had decided to apply for the president position as they both sought opportunities to have a larger role in the club.

“When I first joined Chinese club, it was like, because I also was in Chinese class,” Elizabeth Lee said. “But then I thought that it would be a good way to implement what I learned in class into a club where we can like talk about culture and stuff. Being on officer team would mean that we have more opportunities to plan events.”

As for the new co-presidents’ plans and goals for the next school year, they hope to hold more fundraisers and a variety of events, as well as promote more member engagement.

Jessica Lee describes how she has mixed feelings towards handing the club off to the new officers as she’s been part of Chinese Club for so long, but as president of the club, she believes she has trained the members under her well enough to feel comfortable leaving the club.

“It’s bittersweet, but I feel pretty close to the officers right now or the officers that we’ve worked with this year,” Jessica Lee said. “I feel like the new officers are very qualified too, so I feel like they will have no problem carrying on.”