Stuyvesant Student Union Established New Spring Clubs and Pubs Fair

This year, the Student Union (SU) established a new spring Clubs and Pubs Fair from March 16 to 17 in addition to the annual fall Clubs and Pub Fair held at the beginning of the school year. At both fairs, students have the opportunity to explore and join many of the extracurriculars the school has to offer, but the new spring fair offers an additional opportunity for students to explore clubs throughout the year.

Having two fairs per year gives clubs and organizations another opportunity to receive exposure. “We wanted to give clubs an opportunity to get off the ground because we were proud to have a lot of new clubs this year that have been doing great things,” senior and Clubs and Pubs co-director Jerry Yang said. With every semester, students are eager to expand their interests through creating new clubs, and with a spring fair, these clubs are able to advertise more and build their membership.

The second semester can also be seen as a more relaxed part of the school year, especially for freshmen, who are just beginning their time in high school. “As a freshman, a lot of times in the first semester you don’t do many things that you want, [so the spring fair is] another opportunity to try [new things],” senior and Clubs and Pubs co-director Larissa Yue said.

Many club leaders found the club fair a great option for students to discover new organizations that they may have missed when exploring only one fair. “It was a pretty good idea because it [allowed] people to be able to see the different clubs that they could join if they missed [the fair] during the fall or maybe just [see] if they can join [new] clubs,” junior and Vice President of Stuyvesant Dungeons and Dragons Israel Hernan Vasquez Rugama said. 

Having a second Clubs and Pubs Fair in the spring is especially beneficial for freshmen who have now adjusted to Stuyvesant and are looking for extracurriculars they may not have not formerly been interested in. “People want to try something new. [The fair] is a perfect reminder for people that it isn’t too late to join new clubs,” junior and 2023-2024 Key Club President Adeeb Khan said.

While the spring Clubs and Pubs Fair is similar to the fall fair, the organizational process was much less intense for the Clubs and Pubs co-directors. “We had a template for how to get the fair going [from the fall Clubs and Pubs Fair],” Yue said. This included a map for organizing the fair and the Google forms for the clubs to sign up. “We also had more experience going in [to the Spring Clubs and Pubs Fair] because [of the] Fall [Clubs and Pubs Fair],” Yang said.

However, for club leaders, the recruitment process was similar to what they did in the past. “We did the same [thing] we did back in the fall. We genuinely didn't have much time to try many new [strategies]. Stickers [were] a [big] hit, [since] they [are] not generic and people [who] come by probably have marginally more interest than all the people just going around searching for food,” sophomore and Stuy Linux co-president David Chen said.

Likewise, Key Club also established specific recruitment plans to grab the attention of possible members. “We [had] raffles, fun activities, and really [made] ourselves a noticeable presence at the fair to get people involved and hopefully spark some sort of interest in them,” Khan said.

Overall, the co-directors and club leaders found that the spring fair was a good way for students to be introduced to extracurriculars that they weren’t able to try out during the fall semester. “[It was a way] to get people who were interested in seeing new things during the new semester,” Yue said.