The beginning of every school year brings many fun events for students, including senior leadership recognition ceremony, KPOP events, and the club fair. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic and the limitations of people gathering in one space, Kent was not able to hold these events in our usual way: on the lawn, gathered up and without masks. Despite these hindrances, the virtual club fair was an absolute success, “almost [better] than the in-person clubs fair to let everyone know about all the clubs” says Ms. Sokolnicki, director of extracurricular activities at Kent. 

For the virtual club fair, all the club leaders had to create a flipgrid video to promote their clubs. Some of the leaders got very creative and made videos through other applications such as TikTok, all with fancy special effects to advertise their club. For example, the KSRPG’s, Kent School Role Playing Game club, very entertaining promotional video actually included role playing with game characters. KSRPG’s flipgrid video reached 3000+ views, demonstrating that the virtual club fair ended up being a complete success. Ms. Sokolnicki comments, “This way, club leaders only have to talk about their club one time, instead of going hoarse trying to talk over the crowds to many students for an hour. Also, students can peruse the clubs at their leisure, instead of only having one hour to try to see all the clubs.” 

Kent School currently offers more than 60+ clubs on campus, a resource that many students, old and new, come to school feeling excited about. So surely students were disappointed upon hearing that a normal Club Fair would not be taking place and feeling uncertain about how they would be able to get involved and pursue their interests on campus. But despite any initial disappointment, flipgrid club fairs made students even more excited about participating in extracurricular activities at Kent. 

However, even though the virtual club fair was a success, there are still some concerns regarding club activities and meetings this year due to social distancing. Also, many club leaders may not be on campus, and many club meetings would have to be held through Zoom. But to overcome these obstacles, Ms. Sokolnicki challenges club leaders this year “to think outside the box and come up with new ways to maintain your mission – just like schools and businesses have had to turn their operations on their heads during coronavirus to continue serving their customers.” In terms of logistics, she also suggests that we “be very mindful of when Zoom calls are scheduled, as clubs may have members all over the globe.”

REACH, one of the biggest clubs at Kent, will “make cards for senior citizens instead of visiting senior citizens in person”. And, “also [do] zoom after-school classes for children in NYC, and create many more ‘weekend bags’ of food for children who may not have the safety net of being fed breakfast and lunch at school” added Ms. Sokolnicki, the club advisor for REACH, as well.

Overall, the club fair brought smiles to everyone’s face and gave students hope that both fun and extracurricular activities, albeit COVID, would still be a part of Kent life. However, club leaders and advisors must “get creative and think out of the box” so they can make lemonade out of lemons!