The High School Student News Site of The American School in London

The Standard

The High School Student News Site of The American School in London

The Standard

Check out our latest issue
Subscribe
Loading
Instagram

Extracurriculars at ASL update

High school students participate in a range of extracurriculars at ASL. Recently there has been a lot going on and Online Editor Christina Leonard covers the latest events from a few of the most active extracurriculars.

STUDENT COUNCIL

So far this year, Student Council has been working on the Advisory system as well as working alongside the Academic Committee to introduce the new history course, Human Rights Symposium, for the upcoming school year. Recently, StuCo has been busy working on upcoming events like the underclassmen event, Wiggle and Bangers and Bash, which is at the end of the year. The new executive board was also appointed on February 20; with Ayse Yucesan (’18) elected President and Charlie Victor (’18) elected Vice President. StuCo representative Allegra Albanese (’20) said that even if a student isn’t on StuCo they can still be involved by attending Council meetings every Friday from 3:20 to 5:30 p.m. in Math Teacher Tony Bracht’s room. And because not many students can come on Friday afternoons, Albanese explained that Yucesan hopes to hold lunch meetings once a month next year to make it more available for students to attend.

M.U.N.

Recently, Model United Nations (MUN) is preparing for the Galilee MUN (GALMUN), a two-day conference in Nazareth, Israel taking place from March 21-22. “It’s going to be a really interesting experience because we are going to be the only delegation there to use English as its native language,” participant Nick Kuenstler (’18) said. There are 12 students from grades 9 through 12 who will be accompanied by Social Studies teachers Chris Wolf and Shrita Gajendragadkar, with English teacher Alissa Mears. Although students can’t get involved with GALMUN anymore, they can get involved with other MUN conferences immediately, “One of the great things about MUN is it doesn’t require year round commitment, you can just sign up for whatever conferences you can make,” Kuenstler said. “You don’t [even] need any experience,and it’s great to improve your public speaking skills.”  

JAMBALAYA

Literary magazine Jambalaya has had two publications this year. The editors are working hard to publish their final magazine in June. Staff member Annie Howell (’19) said that Jambalaya staff are already hard at work and she is excited for the designs on the final magazine. Howell enjoys being a part of the staff because “it exposes you to the endless creativity of students and gives you a chance to see different types of artwork.” Students can keep submitting their work to jam@asl.org for the final magazine.  

ROBOTICS

Forty-eight members of the Robotics team who were selected to participate at the First Robotics Competition in Shenzhen, China, returned on March 12 not only winning the regional championship,  but both teams earned awards as well. The Griffins (the team comprised of seniors and juniors) won the Innovation in Control Award, the Phoenix (the team comprised of sophomores and freshmen) won the Gracious Professionalism award, and Gavin Mackay (’19) won the Dean’s List finalist award for his commitment to robotics. The captain of the Phoenix team, Kaito Arai (’19) reflected on the recent competition. “Overall, I think it was a positive experience for the team members,” he said. The robotics team will be heading to the world championships in Houston in April.

SOCIAL JUSTICE COUNCIL

In January, the Social Justice Council comprised of 15 students from grades 9 through 12, had their second annual Aequitas week. In additional to a special assembly with poet Hollie Mcnish on Tuesday, the council organized workshops throughout the day on Thursday with some guest speakers to talk about different social justice issues. President of the Social Justice Council Maddie Kolaja (’18) said that recently they have been work on a Black History Month project, where the council had a screening of a new documentary, 13th, about racial inequality in America. They have also been working alongside the administration to educate the high school on sexual assault, specifically on college campuses. Students can get involved by attending Thursday lunch meetings. “All of our meetings are open, everybody is always welcome to come to those,” Kolaja said.

Written by Online Editor Christina Leonard (’19) 

 

Leave a Comment

Comments (0)

All The Standard Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *