The Reality of Club Trips

After over two months of in-person school, most clubs seem to be operating at a level approaching usual, gathering in person and participating in traditional club activities. Yet there are still certain aspects of club life that haven’t been fully reintegrated into the post-pandemic era, and chief among those are trips to tournaments and conferences.

Stuyvesant Speech and Debate has had many of its major trips canceled or moved online, including its annual Yale conference. There are simply too many concerns surrounding debating with others in close proximity and providing equal opportunities to schools with different policies and economic means. “People will travel from a bunch of different locations across the country and then we’re all in indoor spaces together––the combination of those two doesn’t make it very COVID friendly,” senior and Speech and Debate Co-President Anagha Purohit said. “Also, there’s the issue of equity. Different schools probably have different policies and restrictions.” Though Speech and Debate is looking forward to an in-person tournament next month, it is still unclear whether Stuyvesant students will be able to attend.

Club members enjoy going to in-person tournaments because of the connections they make. “Traveling to [tournaments] is a really great bonding experience both within the Stuyvesant team and with other people on the circuit nationally,” Purohit said. “You get to meet so many people and make new friends and memories.” Without these trips, many members are missing out on these important bonding opportunities. Junior and public forum delegate Jason Xia discussed some of the consequences of attending virtual conferences. “A lot of the allure of debate is prepping with your teammates in a hotel room,” he said. “Debate loses a lot of that charm over Zoom. It feels less satisfying in victory or defeat when you are competing through a screen.”

Similarly, Stuyvesant Chess is grappling with organizing its annual trip to the National K-12 Grade Championships in Florida. This year, DOE protocol prevents the team from traveling together, so many chess players are deciding to go independently. When considering transportation, airplane, food, and hotel expenses, this total often exceeds $500, an amount that many can’t afford.

Even Stuyvesant’s Model United Nations (MUN), a club that has already hosted its own in-person conference, has had to face the impacts of not being able to go on trips together. One of the most popular conferences MUN regularly attends is the Brown University Simulation of the United Nations (BUSUN), a three-day overnight trip to Providence, Rhode Island. “It's my favorite conference, especially since it's our first [school-trip] of the year,” senior and Secretary-General of MUN Ian Graham Martinez said, reminiscing about past attendance at the conference in person. “Providence is a beautiful city, and having the chance to explore it with friends and, for new delegates, it's one of their first chances to try ‘real’ Model UN.”

“Real” Model UN consists of meeting new people outside of Stuyvesant MUN conferences and enjoying the energy within an in-person deliberation. “I think that ‘real’ MUN is composed of not only the amazing conferences but also the environment,” junior and Model UN Director-General Ethan Wong said. “No matter what, I won’t forget how much I’ve learned from going to in-person conferences like the one at Johns Hopkins. On top of that, I’ve honestly met some of my best friends at MUN that I wouldn't trade for anybody.”

However, because BUSUN is being held virtually this year and has an expensive conference fee, the club has decided not to attend. In addition, there are very few MUN conferences at the beginning of the year. “Without BUSUN, the first conference we attend is SciMUNC, hosted by Bronx Science in December, several months after recruitments, which would leave our novices without a clear understanding of what a MUN conference is like,” Graham Martinez said.

Virtual MUN has not had the same results as its in-person counterpart. “Last year, every conference was held virtually, and retention definitely suffered. Sitting in front of a computer for eight hours on a Saturday, no matter how interesting the topic you're debating, is not an enticing opportunity,” Graham Martinez said.

This is not to say that some clubs haven’t been able to successfully adapt to a remote setting. The Speech and Debate team have readjusted to the schedule of upcoming tournaments, and are optimistic about the next year. “There’s a little bit more hope for the second semester: no national tournaments, but hopefully we’ll be able to compete in person at local tournaments like states and maybe a few more,” Purohit said.

Stuyvesant Chess has been largely successful at having many of its members attend the latest in-person tournament and is looking forward to the second semester as well. “We look forward to Spring High School Nationals to [travel as] a group together,” senior and co-captain of the Stuyvesant Chess Club Alison Chan said. Model UN has also been doing its best to get in-person conferences up and running. “We gave delegates a taste of in-person conferences at a small event that we hosted [recently] at miniMUNC, where we hosted a socially distanced local conference for novices,” Wong noted.

There is no simple answer to the question about when clubs will be running at full steam once again. They have tried their best to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, and have found considerable success; however, these clubs will continue to struggle to attend in-person trips as long as the pandemic continues.