Review: New Activity Fair Format

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On September 27 during Common Time, students gathered in their red and white teams in the A&A to discover and join new clubs at this year’s Activities Fair. Many returning clubs and numerous new clubs made their debut. This year’s Activities Fair ran a little differently than in past years due to the new Coordinators of Student Life & Culture Mrs. Nolan and Mrs. Mcleod.  Students rotated around the A&A in an orderly fashion, visiting all tables with clubs stationed at them to answer questions and collect names of interested students while in the company of their multi-grade red and white teams.

The new format offered informational flyers and short presentations in one-minute visits by each red/white group as they rotated at each activity-display. This pattern offered a steady organizational flow, and the student leaders presented themselves as more unified this year than in  past years. Some students enjoyed this new process of the Activities Fair while others did not.

Mariel Rosati ‘19 said, “It was a good idea, but maybe next year it could be executed differently. I was stuck at many clubs that I wasn’t interested in and then was only given a brief amount of time to those activities I truly wanted to learn more about. It was also difficult for the middle schoolers because it was obvious they were a little impatient with how many clubs were just for high schoolers, yet they had to stay there anyway.”  A solution may be to put all the middle school club tables together and all the high school club tables together so that students can focus on what is specifically available for them.  They could also browse other tables to see other opportunities as well if they wanted to. Once students are done browsing, they could return to class for a study or class meeting.

Another alternative may be having students travel around the room in their big/little sisters’ families. On the other hand Gabby Landry ‘18 remarked, “I think the table arrangement for the fair this year helped the whole thing run more smoothly.  Although the rotations were kind of short, I still had enough time to answer questions and hand out flyers, and I ended up getting a lot of signups for newspaper.”

Overall, this year’s Activities Fair went well, with many students signing up for different clubs, both new and old. Student club leaders and member alike can’t wait to hold and attend their first club meetings these coming weeks.