By Violeta Panayotova
Did you know that Tempe Prep has more than 28 clubs? Or that changes to our club system have been happening all year round? Well, while we have been busy creating and discovering new hobbies and finding new activities during the difficult times of the pandemic, greater changes have been occurring at the TPA campus.
As of the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, our own Ms. Palumbo has been promoted to be the extracurricular director of Tempe Prep. As the director, she is in charge of filing forms, managing clubs and awarding payment orders. She is also the person that approves all of our ideas and makes them into a reality, giving us the ability to express what is important to us. While she says that “It’s no different than what I was doing as the State Chair of the Arizona Junior Classical League.” It has nevertheless opened the door for a variety of opportunities for her to improve the school campus.
As she started figuring out the process and her goals she started with transferring all of the files from Microsoft Word to Google Docs, a process that took way too long. With the first step out of the way, Ms. Palumbo continued by analyzing a greater storm that is at stake: the pandemic. It is no secret that the changes have influenced many, and Ms. Palumbo recognizes the fact. However, with her new positions, she has focused on increasing club participation and ensuring that all students are reached out to and asked how they are doing.
She explains that “each time at Classics Club we spend at least 30 minutes just catching up,” an activity that many students look forward to. But aside from the incredible dedication of the extracurricular director to increasing interests in TPA’s clubs by organizing club fairs and wanting an increase of representation on the school’s newsletter and Instagram, she has also started a movement.
“Before I got here,” Ms. Palumbo explains, “there was a big difference between official and non-official clubs” whereas to be official a student needs to pay the minimum fee of $10 to be a part of it. However, as she took charge of the leadership, she changed this old rule and established that all clubs whether they are free or not will be official. She explains that while competitive clubs such as Robotics and Speech and Debate have the fee and are big clubs, “other clubs serve a different purpose.” She has noticed that because of the rigid TPA curriculum, it is the clubs that represent and give the students a voice they can express. “By serving a wide variety of needs, my goal is to build a strong community of Tempe Prep students that represent the school and themselves” is the final sentiment Ms. Palumbo leaves us with.
As we continue this school year and find new ways to connect with others in a virtual format, it is the job of the extracurricular director to continue navigating us to find each other, a job Ms. Palumbo has ultimately succeeded at. And if you are interested in pursuing a new hobby or finding new friends, check out TPA’s incredible club system that is there for your exploration and your use.