One of the biggest downsides of online school during the pandemic was the lack of in-person, interactive clubs. Luckily, the 2021-2022 school year once again provided us with the opportunity to join clubs and interact with our peers in extracurricular settings. This school year, students have shown the most enthusiastic involvement in clubs that BIFU has ever seen. In recognition of this improvement, we set out to interview some veterans of BIF clubs about their past experiences and future hopes for the clubs that they’re in!
Ajay Anubolu, Member
What are some of your favorite parts of being a part of the Rock Climbing Club? My favorite part is finishing problems alongside my teammates and watching us improve together side by side. I also enjoy watching Dr. Winslow effortlessly finish every climb. What do you look forward to this year? I look forward to improving and going on the monkey bars once again!
Alicia Peng, Member
How long have you been practicing a speech? I had my first speech lesson in 3rd grade. But I've been doing speech and debate competitively since 7th grade, so it's been like 5 years? Oh my gosh, that's so cool! This year in particular, what's been your favorite part of being on the team? I think it's the people, especially the amount of people in the team this year! And I'm really excited to do a duo with Shreya this year as well as try a new event! Ah, yes - doing a speech with a partner is so much more fun than doing a piece alone. What’s your favorite part of being a part of the team? My favorite part of being on the speech team is winning. I'm just kidding! haha! My real favorite part of speech is the people <3 like Ada, Esha, Shreya, Shirley, Olivia, my sister, etc. Awww, the team loves you too. With almost a decade of speech experience under your belt, do you have any tips for anyone who's reading this, aspiring to be a future Ted Talker? Even though I've been practicing public speaking for most of my life, I'm not a perfect public speaker by any means. I'm still learning and growing as a speaker and am nowhere near Ted Talk level. My only tip is to be confident and fake it ‘til you make it!
Shirley Fan, Co-founder
What’s the history behind BIFU’s first DECA club? The root of my interest in DECA was 8th-grade Economics, a class I largely enjoyed, which further stemmed in freshman year when I learned of a nationwide organization dedicated to training business leaders and teaching knowledge applicable in real life. Alicia and I thought the club would bring considerable benefits to the BASIS community, so we spent the last 2 years trying to build this club up, working with Ms. Abodouma, Ms. Locke, Ms. Mangal, Ms. Cardenas, Mr. Ong as well as many others who really helped us build this club up. What are some hopes for DECA in the 2022-2023 school year? Our hope for the club this year is to spread the benefits of DECA to the entire school, members or not, by possibly holding fundraisers or school-wide events. We also have high aspirations for our club members and hope we can all qualify for ICDC this year. *ICDC = nationals for DECA -> regionals, states, then ICDC
Alicia Peng, Co-founder
What was your inspiration behind DECA? I took AP Economics freshman year, and that course really impacted my view on business and economics and it is something I want to pursue in the future. What is your favorite part about DECA? I think my favorite part of the club is the people in it! Shirley and I have been trying to get this club started since freshman year and we're both really grateful that it happened this year. And we have an amazing group of people this year and I'm so excited to see what's in store for us this year!
Joleen Pan, President
Introduce yourself and tell us what inspired you to become president of MUN? Hello! My name is Joleen Pan and I am a junior. I am the first and current president of Model UN. Last year, I had an excellent time in the club, in the classroom, and at conferences. Whether it was doing research or hanging out with friends, I found a passion for many of the topics covered in Model UN. At the time, I finished taking AP Government and was taking AP US History, and that resonated a lot with Model UN. In my opinion, learning a lot about current events and ways to resolve world problems is a great way to interact with others and expand on critical thinking skills. As president, what are your goals for this year? In the upcoming year, I hope to send many delegates to conferences across the country and experience different kinds of conferences. Most importantly, I sincerely hope all of our club members this year have a great time learning about world issues and finding ways to come up with solutions like a leader.
Student Advisors
Christopher C., Julee J., Olivia M.
What were your motivations behind creating the Journalism Club? What are your hopes for the club this school year? The idea of creating a school newspaper and integrating students' writing skills with the events and activities of the larger school environment immediately struck us as an undeniable opportunity. Constructing such a platform would allow students to sharpen their writing skills and help the school community keep up with important school events and news. With the contributions of the dedicated club members and last year’s teacher advisors, Mr. Betcher and Ms. Abdelaziz, we were able to successfully create monthly issues that provided students and parents with engaging, accurate journalism. With the addition of our new advisor Teacher Jasica and the many new writers this year, we hope to take the variety and quality of The Yellow Pages to the next level. We are sincerely grateful for the support that everybody has shown us, and we hope to make an even greater impact on the community this year!