Ending their spring break on a good note, eight Key Club members participated in the Key Club District Convention on March 19 and 20.

“I really enjoyed getting to interact with members from other Key Clubs across the state,” junior Elise Girard, treasurer, said, “and getting to talk with them about how we could improve our school’s Key Club.”

Each day of the convention opened with a guest speaker. The first speaker, officer Shelby Frazier, talked about social media safety and the second, Don Carey, presented on leadership skills.

“I really enjoyed learning the traits of a leader because the information is really useful for clubs at our school and just future opportunities for success,” junior Ananya Pagadala, club member, said. “The main idea we learned is that you have to get over the fear of judgement and put yourself out there and form relationships with various people.”

After the opener for the day, club members — juniors Jecca Park, Deeshana Nilaweera, Ashi Wickramasundara, Ava Chae, Girard and Pagadala and freshmen Helinna Bontrager and Sonika Khosla — split up to participate in workshops. The sessions touched on a range of topics, including mental health, time management, stress management, mindfulness, social media, scholarship and club opportunities, officer training and inclusiveness. 

“Most of [the workshops] weren’t strictly about Key Club,” Girard said. “They were really helpful for other things in life. I went to a few mental health and productivity workshops and learned a lot from those.”

Additionally, according to Girard, the convention allowed for conversation between clubs to offer guidance on how to improve certain aspects of the club.

“We got some advice from officers at other clubs in the state about how we could increase membership for next year,” Girard said, “as well as diversifying our members. We’ve been having trouble getting more guys to be members [as] our club is mainly girls.”

District officer elections were also held at the convention, and junior Zoe Meyer was elected Lieutenant Governor. About two weeks earlier, Key Club also held officer elections for next school year. The following list is the new officer slate: president Wickramasundara, vice president sophomore Jessica Zhang, secretary Nilaweera, treasurer Park, historian junior Meredith Graves, communication leader Khosla and Student Council representative sophomore Ava Hornung. 

Next week, Key Club is participating in a joint-club activity. 

“We are going to help [the] Environmental Club write letters to refugee children,” Pagadala said.