China Care sends letters to orphans
On Jan. 15, members of the China Care Club (CCC) wrote letters directed to the orphans of the China Care Home in Beijing. The executive members of CCC decided to reinitiate dialogue between the orphans and students after a two-year hiatus in order to ensure that intimate and close relationships would continue between the two groups. Other long-term agendas the club anticipates include sending toys and school equipment. According to Eunice Kang (12), CCC president, the combination of such activities will teach the members to be more personally engaged in the club.
“It is important to realize that what we are doing is not just abstract—everything we do really affects the children,” Eunice said. “Hopefully, membership will increase through our activities and people will become more interested and passionate about truly helping the orphans living in impoverished conditions.”
NKHR holds first annual book drive
In order to tangibly assist the North Korean refugee community, North Korean Human Rights (NKHR) will start its first book drive on Feb. 2. After collecting the books for approximately three weeks in the elementary and high school, the club will directly donate the books to the Korea Hana Foundation, an organization that works towards reunification and contributes to helping North Korean defectors. According to Alice Rhim (11), NKHR treasurer, the club chose to send books instead of daily necessities, as such an action could potentially offend the North Korean defectors by implying that they are in need.
“When NKHR was first created in 2011, it was possible to reach out to defectors and interact with them,” Alice said. “As time passed, however, the issue became more and more sensitive to the administration, making it difficult for SIS students to actually meet defectors. This is disappointing, but given the circumstances there is not much we can do. Therefore, we focus on events like fundraisers and drives. No matter how small our contributions may seem, organizations like us play a colossal role in the success of the North Korean refugees.”
AMC 10/12B unavailable for SIS
Although both versions A and B of the American Math Competition (AMC) were available in previous years, the administration has decided to only allow students to take version A going forward. According to Peter Valerio, mathematics teacher, this change was made due to scheduling problems during spring break. While this alteration may be inconvenient for students who primarily focus on math and science, there are venues outside SIS available for students who wish to participate in this annual event.
“Although the news mildly annoyed me initially, I later realized that it would help me do better on this test,” said Terrance Lee (10), member of Mu Alpha Theta. “Because this change reinforced the fact that I would only be given one chance to take it in our school, I put in my full effort in studying for the first test.”