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Students seek to learn more about new clubs. (Photo by McKinley Pieper)

Ted-Ed Club

The variety of clubs at Palos Verdes High School means endless opportunities for Sea Kings interested in exploring new passions. For sophomore and TED-Ed club president Taylor Stroud, she hopes that her club will give her peers a chance to grow as public speakers as they expand their horizons through the TED-ed organization.

The mission of the TED-Ed club is to have students create their own TED Talk-style presentations with the goal of improving critical thinking, researching and speechmaking. Stroud was inspired to create the club after her newfound love of the process of creating a presentation from a project in Marie Kuhn’s biology class and hopes that the club gives her peers the same experience.

“I think it is a really good idea for exploring other options and passions and developing better [presentation] skills overall,” Stroud said.

Harlem Lacrosse Club

Junior Lily Vancans along with some of her teammates, created the Harlem Lacrosse club. In Los Angeles there is an organization called Harlem Lacrosse that works with inter-city children and gets them into the sport of lacrosse along with academic help.

“It is a club that is supporting the non-profit Harlem Lacrosse, which brings lacrosse-related opportunities to at-risk youth and also academic help with after school activities to give at-risk youth another place to go that won’t get them into trouble,” said Vancans.

She will be meeting with PVHS former lacrosse head coach Marissa Hewitt.

The club will act as a facilitator for kids from our school to help out.

“Marissa Hewitt is now the regional director for Harlem Lacrosse so I am working with her to see how best our club will fit their needs. Our meetings will be twice a month on Mondays,” Vancans said.

“It’s more about putting something in because I think that if you start something looking to get something out of it, it will never work out the way you want it to. I don’t want us to get something out of it working to get out of it. We want kids from our school to go to other schools and help out,” Vancans said.

Give Back to Society Club

Sophomore Maddie Grant is the founder of this new club.

The purpose of her club is to “hold donation drives for the students at Olive Crest Academy, a school for the disabled and abused. We would be asking for clothing, toys, and other essentials from students at PVHS who want to donate to this special cause. While Olive Crest Academy is the main place we will be working with in the club, it will not the only place we will connect with,” Grant said.

“Our goal is to hold donation drives for Olive Crest Academy which is a school for abused children who don’t really have anything and are underprivileged and it will feel great to give back to them,” she said.

“I have a few drives in mind like for winter, a coat drive, and canned foods for Thanksgiving. I will put out flowers and urge the members to spread the word.”

WISE Club

As of 2016, only 30% of the STEM workforce was made up of women. Senior and Women in Science and Engineering Club, or WISE, president Hana Meroth hopes to fix the gender disparity starting with high school educational opportunities.

The club advocates for women in STEM-related fields by bringing in speakers and promoting scholarships and opportunities for members to meet others with similar interests.

In addition, they plan on working with the PVHS library to provide phone charging stations powered by pedaling bicycles.

Although the club was not on campus last year, Meroth has found an urgency to bring it back to campus.

“A lot of girls get discouraged from pursuing a career in STEM fields,” Meroth said.

“So, maybe if in high school they are encouraged and have an environment where they can meet other girls who are [involved in] STEM, they can pursue that in college and possibly after.”