Middle College High School allows students to join like-minded peers and make a positive impact. The Robotics Club builds robots for competitions, the Art Club provides a space for creative expression and the Bring About Hope Club promotes mental health and positivity. These clubs help students learn new skills and strengthen the school community.

Here at Middle College High School, there are many diverse clubs that range in subject, and we decided to select a few that may seem interesting to different students here. From painting, building robots, or even taking a break from school and focusing inward. We interviewed these three club presidents on their clubs and plans for this year.

Art Club

Junior Julissa Ramos is co-president of the Art Club and wants students to know that anyone who likes art and wants to take a break from school should join the club.

“I want people to be aware that you don’t have to be good at art in order to be in the Art Club. It’s a club for literally anyone to come and participate in an art activity and be able to de-stress for a little while,” Ramos said.

This club holds their meetings every other Wednesday after school, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Mrs. Holte’s room. Ramos emphasized how the art club is a welcoming and inclusive place for anyone of any art level to join. However, she noted the group has struggled to gain traction in the past.

“I’m hoping for a lot more participants, because I remember last year it was pretty empty, so I’m hoping that we have a lot more participants this year,” Ramos said.

Their club explores different art mediums, which allows everyone to gain experience in different art forms. One art form they plan on doing soon is face painting at the Halloween Dance.

“We do oil pastels, acrylic paintings, and origami. We followed Bob Ross tutorials in the past as well. For our first meeting, we just did sketches. We actually had in mind face painting at the Halloween dance, probably, so we’re practicing face painting right now,” Ramos said.

They have so many fun ideas planned. When asked about past activities, she told us about the altar she and the club set up at the Day of the Dead event in Downtown Santa Ana. She also mentioned the past field trips.

“We also have done field trips in the past, we went to an art museum in L.A., just super fun. And I know we’ve definitely done other field trips in the past,” Ramos said.

To conclude, Ramos encourages MCHS students to join the Art Club.

“It’s a good activity. It’s fun. You get to meet new people and try new things. Even if it might not seem fun at first, you might end up enjoying it by the end,” Ramos said.

Robotics Club

Next, we interviewed the president of the Robotics Club, Junior, Eduardo Cruz. This is a new club; therefore, they have not done anything in the past. If you are interested in robots and coding, this club is for you.

“This club is where you build robots, learn how to code and the possibility of going into competitions,” Cruz said.

They are currently working on building two robots as it’s a small club of 10 people. Despite the club’s small size, they have some competitions that they might go to in the future.

“We plan to compete in at least one or two competitions and possibly win one of them in the future,” Cruz said.

As stated earlier, this is a new club, so Cruz is the first to experiment with it.

“I was offered the role to be the president of the Robotics Club because I’ve been in Mr. Gerstman’s class for two years in the manufacturing and design and the robotics side of the elective,” Cruz said.

This makes him very experienced in the robotics field.

The Robotics Club is different from the other clubs offered at MCHS. If you are interested in coding, this is the club for you.

“Students may want to join our club if they want to know a bit more about robotics, coding and the possibility of winning competitions and traveling. It’s a great club to be in but it requires you to try your best, work hard and help out,” Cruz said.

Robotics meetings are held in Mr. Gerstman’s room, on Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30 to 8:10 a.m.

Bring About Hope Club

Last but not least, we decided to interview the club president for Bring About Hope, Paola Sanchez. Bring About Hope focuses on mental health. They have done a lot of activities in the past that they also plan to do in the future.

“We have done distressing activities like slime, origami, bringing awareness to mental health, and also bringing in expert speakers and learning more about mental health in general,” Sanchez said.

If you want to join this club but still want to complete some community service hours, don’t worry.

“We do offer community service hours by going to the community garden,” Sanchez said.

Bring About Hope is a club Sanchez has been in since her freshman year, and she knew that the club was for her. She especially liked it because of the atmosphere it provided.

“It was really fun, and it was a nice, safe place to go during lunchtime, and we would learn about mental health,” Sanchez said.

Because this isn’t Sanchez’s first year running the club, she already has an idea of what to do for this upcoming year.

“I hope to go to the community garden at Jerome Park nearby, so Thursdays after school, go to the community garden just for one hour to help out. And I also want to have a mental health awareness week in our school, where we just do small little activities throughout the week to bring more awareness,” Sanchez said.

In the past, they have done some super fun activities.

“We started off with small activities like coloring, stress ball making and giving out hot chocolate,” Sanchez said.

Of course, we can’t forget that two years ago, in her sophomore year they did an activity for Mental Health Awareness Week.

“We paired up with another club that doesn’t exist anymore, but we had a Mental Health Awareness Week. We gave out little things like motivational cards, candy. We had an activity after school, like an affirmation box, where we can put an affirmation.” Sanchez said.

The Bring About Hope Club is a safe space where Sanchez expects students to have manners.

“We want members to be understanding and maintain an open mind. Bring About Hope is very much a non judgmental space. So I expect all members to be respectful, be open minded and be a good listener.” Sanchez said.

You should definitely join this club. It’s a very supportive club where you can get community service hours and de-stress.

“It’s a low commitment club, very understanding of space and community,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez has her meetings in the lounge on Thursdays weekly during lunch, get ready for a fun year.