The current online list of AMCHS’ clubs and organizations includes over 40 distinct entries. Senior Mona Birgisson, dissatisfied with her options of discussion-based clubs, decided instead to create another.
“The discussions were very brief,” Birgisson said. “You just went there at four o’clock, someone presented something for 15 minutes, and then it was done. I felt like I wasn’t really getting much out of that. I wanted to create a club that really involved all the members, [where] everyone got something out of it no matter what their interests are.”
Nicolás Macri, the senior who is a current student leader of the UIL Academic team along with Robotics and Interfaith, also hoped to increase involvement in student organizations.
“This year, I’ve really worked hard as president to try to make our academics club a little more collegial,” Macri said. “In previous years, UIL people just didn’t really talk to each other or study together, and I wanted to change the culture around that.”
Birgisson had a rough idea of what her club would look like, but knew she needed to develop it more.
“I knew that I wanted to increase awareness for environmental issues and appreciation for nature within the student body,” Birgisson said. “I just didn’t know specifically what to do. Then, around Thanksgiving, I really started fleshing out my ideas and started getting really excited about it. That’s when I knew that I wanted to start Eco, and what our purpose would be.”
Birgisson, though, still had more work ahead of her. To start a club, she needed to gain administrative approval, find a teacher to sponsor the organization, create bylaws and planned officer positions. Eventually, she was able to do this and determine the mission of her club:
“Eco’s mission is to increase awareness [of] environmental issues, increase appreciation for nature, and empower students to take action,” Birgisson said. “I also think a big part of my vision was to create a really tight knit group of people who deeply care about nature.”
While Birgisson began to plan and establish her club, the UIL Academics team was practicing for its upcoming spring-semester season. Macri prepared for several events, hoping that the team for his main event, current issues and events– a 40-minute multiple choice test followed by an essay on news relevant to Texas, the US, and even an international scale– would win at the state competition.
“AMCHS [had] a really long record of winning first place in state at current events,” Macri said. “We did that for the fifth time in a row my freshman year. Unfortunately in sophomore year we lost by two points in Region, but then we redeemed ourselves in junior year by winning first place again. I was definitely looking forward to possibly a third-time win at state. Our team looked pretty strong this year.”
By March, Mona’s club was founded, with plans to visit local parks, discuss the environment with professionals in various relevant subjects, and attempt to create more memorable discussions and encourage more activism through tying the lessons to hands-on projects and crafts.
“We were going to do crafts related to sustainability: making our own reusable bags to bring to the grocery store instead of using plastic bags, [or] sourcing foods locally, which is more sustainable, and then cooking with it,” Birgisson said. “I know someone who has their own bees and a bunch of beeswax, so we would have made beeswax candles.”
Although Eco’s first meeting on March 3 only had a discussion on the Fast Fashion phenomenon, Birgisson planned to introduce more crafts-based ideas.
“We would have a mini lesson about the environmental issue and discuss it first, and then we would do a little craft or little projects related to it,” Birgisson said. “Such as pesticide problems– [pesticide problems] would relate to the bees and the beeswax craft we had planned.”
But the second meeting never came. Neither did the UIL district meet, or state. On March 13, CSISD announced that schools would be closed until the 20th. The date was pushed weeks later, and later extended to the entire semester. The extracurriculars could not have in-person meetings and many upcoming competitions, like UIL academics, were cancelled.
“I never expected this to become this big, honestly,” Macri said. “I was completely blindsided. It was only during spring break that I realized there was a chance we might not come back to school, and I thought ‘maybe it’ll just be for a week’. I was in communication with school officials about maybe [rescheduling] our district competition. But now school is completely canceled for the rest of the academic year. I was planning originally for contingencies, you know, we’ll shift our studying, take advantage of the extra week off school, just study a bit more– but the competitions are completely, to my knowledge, canceled.”
While UIL can’t compete, Eco can’t even communicate. With no schoology group or other concrete communication system– the first meeting did not have enough time to establish one– Birgisson has no way to communicate with many of the participants and create virtual meetings. Instead, she is trying to make sure Eco survives into next year through contacting the non-senior club officials like junior Sarah Barrow.
“I tried to find people who aren’t seniors. I honestly didn’t know that many people,” Birgisson said. “But Sarah was someone I did know who I knew cared about the environment. We’ve been discussing her continuing this, she seems really passionate about the cause, and we also talked about finding officers for next year. That might be a little hard right now, especially since the club isn’t very concrete right now– since we only had one meeting– but we’ve been working on finding more people who are interested.”
Macri fears that a lack of official competition, with only simulation meets, could hurt the team’s morale in the future.
“My team members could have had a first place medal under their belts to inspire them for next year and future students for years to come,” Macri said. “With there not being anyone left at our school with that kind of statewide win, it really makes me sad. I thought that we could have multiple state winners this year, and then that could inspire future generations after I’m gone.”
When asked what he would want to tell the team when preparing for the next school year, Macri hopes that they can keep the faith they had before the COVID-19 cancellations.
“I think that this year, in so many events, we were forming teams that were so much stronger than anything we’ve had at Consol in recent years. People were actually working together,” Macri said. “The worst thing that could possibly happen is if we lose the momentum and just give up next year. We’re in a good place and I think that they can seize the opportunity to grow. So just keep going.”
