By Michelle Mairena and Aileen Delgado

Visiting the different booths, asking questions to the smiling student officers, and eagerly picking up a pen to sign a “Club Interest Form” during Club Rush is a defining high school experience for students. Joining an extracurricular school activity has always been a way in which students find their niche, foment their interests, and grow socially — a must-do within the high school tradition. 

But in the age of COVID-19, the entire high school paradigm has shifted. Extracurriculars, amid online meet-ups, social distancing, and the cancellation of major competitions, too have changed.

“I feel like my team and I are working [at] the best of our ability,” says Lorena Vazquez, a Junior at Miami Lakes Educational Center (MLEC) and the Vice President of the school’s Future Business Leader of America (FBLA) club.

“Sometimes I feel like I can do better or think to myself and say ‘I can think of better ideas’…. but I try not to torture myself with overthinking too much,” she continues. 

For Vazquez, as like hundreds of other high school leaders across Miami-Dade, the new school year has brought a new burden to being a club officer: the task of making online meet-ups, to which most extracurricular activities have been limited to, interesting. The planning is a constant hassle, and she tries not to bring herself down when each meeting call ends, but the question always remains — after eight hours of online school, how can FBLA make students want to voluntarily join their call? 

It’s difficult — and then there’s the other issue: WiFi accessibility.

“Sadly, not everybody has a trusted internet source so it’s hard to continue and participate in certain clubs or even classes,” she says. As she and the rest of officers continue navigating the online world, this is another obstacle they need to face: reaching out to everybody. 

Online School, Online Clubs

All across Miami-Dade, the start of the school year was electronic through the “My School Online” model. In October, as the District office reassessed reopening, the option was given to parents: students can choose to return to their school campus or remain learning at home.

Even though some students returned to campus since, extracurricular activities have remained limited to the world that they were first placed in. Students are not allowed to meet after school, all field trips and most major competitions— such as Model United Nations — are now virtual, and club meetings continue solely online. 

When asked if they believe the pandemic has inhibited them from participating in extracurricular activities, 120 students of a poll of 157 across Miami-Dade said that they feel that yes, COVID-19 has affected their involvement. Of this same poll, 32% also say they have not participated in online activities. 

When facing this reality in numbers, officers like Vazquez are reminded once again of why they need to work extra hard. They need to come up with ingenious ideas for club meetings, selling a call to students otherwise not interested in attending an extra Zoom meeting. 

“We worked really hard in the summer. We met almost every other week to plan out future events and marketing ideas on Instagram and Twitter,” says Vazquez, who has worked on putting together videos, colorful graphics, and bingo cards for FBLA’s ongoing social media campaign of recruitment.

They were even able, despite not being allowed to physically fundraise like in years prior, an all-online project. 

“We are doing a community service project called the Health Service Project where we send letters to health care workers to remind them of our appreciation,” she explains. “I feel like we are doing the best we can [in the online world].”

Other activities cannot be virtual though. Athletics, famously, are activities that require students to be put in constant physical training and engage in large groups to play. In the age of social distancing, maneuvering this has not been easy.

Sports During COVID

Mabell Fernandez, who has been handling COVID-19 preparations for the MIA Elite Flag football team, says that for sports, this year has brought a particular obstacle.

“We have guidelines for practices, in which coaches wear masks at all times and we ask players to wear masks whenever possible, minimize contact, and maintain social distancing as much as possible. We also have guidelines for game days which start with players performing a health assessment before playing,” says Fernandez.

“We communicate these guidelines to the parents as much as possible, but since we don’t live in a state where masks are mandated, it’s basically up to them to adhere to these guidelines. There’s so much we can do to enforce them,” she adds.

Despite students still feeling encouraged to participate in these activities regardless of the circumstances, there are still concerns to be addressed.