Students Explore New Interests at Engagement Fair

Story by Leo Im '28
Photos by Michael Kim '29

For most students, clubs have a lot of influence over high school life, providing opportunities for them to discover and express their interests, meet peers who have the same interests as them, and develop unique skills. However, without proper support and guidance, students might find it hard to choose the right club or even notice whether there is a club that aligns with their own interests. 

NMH addresses this with the Engagement Fair, giving students a chance to explore clubs, interact with founders, and find other groups that match their passions.

This year’s fair took place last month on the Memorial Grove lawn, which buzzed with activity from student service clubs like the Climate Action Club to student interest and community clubs including the Gender Sexuality Alliance.

The fair served multiple purposes for students with various roles. For club founders, for example, it was a way to recruit new members and share their visions, and for students who were already in particular clubs, it enabled them to see updates or changes for their own clubs. For students who just happened to walk by, it was an unexpected opportunity to find others with common interests or even unearth one that they hadn’t taken notice of.

Raon Kang ’28 attended the fair to launch the AI club. “Primarily, we will be using AI as a machine-learning tool to do statistical analysis and leave a strong impact on school society,” stated Kang, pointing out that there would not be any sort of violation regarding the school’s AI academic policy.

Similarly, Anthony Nakamura ’26 founded an improv club with an intention to connect newcomers to performing arts with veterans in the field, making it accessible to everyone. “I feel like performing arts in NMH has to be more accessible to a wider range of people, and the Improv club which I established will do just that by giving the students the opportunity to do those things,” Nakamura said. 

Other students, like Lyon Courtney ’28, simply attended the fair to explore. Courtney stopped by on his way back to the dorm to see what had changed in GSA and check out new opportunities of his own by checking out other club booths. “There are a lot of different, interesting ideas, not all of which I have joined, but I joined some that stood out to me. I also have to consider that I don’t have time to attend all of them, so I’ve been tactically choosing which ones I can actually join,” Courtney said.

What enabled this convenient experience was the novel system NMH implemented since its first Engagement Fair, which made the sign-up process short and concise: just scanning the QR code and filling out a form or writing one’s email address. Thus, visitors could explore at their own pace and follow up later via email.

As the fair wrapped up and the lights dimmed, the club organizers, members, and teachers began packing up, but their liveliness and energy did not die down. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, perhaps implying that they managed to gather interested students or discovered a club that suited their interests just right. When the final announcement notifying the end of the fair was delivered, students who were seen entering the student activity fair on their own now departed in a group: a group formed with a glue called “common interest.”

Hisu Kang ’26, leader of the Korean Student Association, while packing up the club’s booth with her newly enlarged group, happily said, “This is my fourth student activity fair, and I loved it because students were able to interact with a lot of different people they haven’t met, while for club leaders, they could effectively gather students with shared interests.”

Students who joined the activity fair this year would no doubt consider it a success but also a model of the big student community of NMH itself, consisting of ambitious, enthusiastic students; club leaders that help them pursue their goals; and even those who are on the journey of unearthing their interests that are still waiting to be discovered, positively functioning together as a whole.