Club Spotlight: Connections Club
Having fast become one of OHS’s largest clubs with over 150 members in their Skype chat, you have likely come across the OHS Connections Club which is dedicated to fostering a community where students can meet new people and make friends. I spoke to the Connections Club’s leader, Adrian Salgado (’23), about the club and his experience since starting it this year, his first year at OHS.
Adrian Salgado was homeschooled since he was in the fourth grade. However, after finishing the highest-level high school math course available to him last year, he joined OHS this year so that he could pursue university-level maths as a junior. Adrian jokes that what also contributed to his decision to join was that he “had no social life.” He explains that he had always heard about clubs during his time homeschooling, but for many years, missed out on the different aspects of student life. Now at OHS, with the multitude of student-run clubs, circles, and events, Adrian says he has had an “amazing” experience in the OHS community and “tries to take advantage of everything.”
At the beginning of the school year, Adrian first started looking for clubs to join but it was not long before he started thinking about starting a club of his own. He first considered starting a “book-reading club” since he enjoys reading, but he noted that it would be very similar to OHS’s Literature Club and that reading “wasn’t something [he] was extremely passionate about” either. One day after talking to some friends, he came up with the idea of a club that could simply be dedicated to meeting new people and playing games. Having also been inspired by the game nights held at Online Summer@Stanford before the start of the school year, he decided to pursue his idea and start the OHS Connections Club.
Reflecting on the club’s first meeting, Adrian recalls making a lot of preparations and striving to make it very structured, but he soon realized that though “planning is important, [he] can’t plan every little detail.” He says, “I have to leave room for a lot of improvisation and do what the club members want to do because the club is for the members.” Now, a usual meeting has people gather to play games together such as Gartic Phone, which Adrian says has been particularly popular. He explains that any kind of game works for the club because attendees enjoy simply getting the chance to casually talk and hang out with one another. The Connections Club has also hosted several school-wide events including a Trivia Tournament at Homecoming last November and most recently, a Club and Circle Jeopardy game at Pixel Festival last month.
The OHS Connections Club has also gone on to thrive outside of its regular meetings, and with over 150 members in its Skype group, the chat is always active. “One of the best parts of [the club],” Adrian says, “is how it pretty much [...] runs on itself.” Adrian adds that he has even been getting messages from people who have asked him for advice on how to meet new people and make friends. “That’s great because if this club is centered towards anyone, it’s toward those people who want a bit more help for that so that everyone can be a part of the great [OHS] community,” he notes.
Adrian never expected that the club would get this big, especially since he joined as a junior and will only be spending two years at OHS. While he initially thought it would be something he would do on the side, running the Connections Club has now turned out to be Adrian’s “passion project.” Since it “started from nothing in September,” he is interested in seeing how the club will continue to grow this spring semester.
If you are interested in joining the Connections Club, be sure to check out their Canvas page and join their Skype chat!