Hannah Pursley
From politics to different cultural backgrounds, Hereford now has more opportunities for students to voice their opinions through new clubs. One of the most talked about upcoming clubs is Multicultural Club, founded by Justin McCain (12). Multicultural is a club sponsored by Mr. Saunders, a brand new World History teacher to Hereford, where anyone is welcome to share his/her culture and be accepted.
While doing tricep dips outside the weight room, Justin explained he was motivated to start the club “because Mr. Jerome Saunders is African American; he emulates the level of diversity we have at Hereford. Diversity is cool and it’s good to be aware of that.” Club activities include “talking about issues of all different races and getting views on issues that affect everybody, not just one race,” he stated.
Plans are also underway to create a multicultural day where everyone “traces back where their family originally came from and brings a traditional dish and style of music played.” Justin thinks this club will be a great benefit to Hereford in that it will “show the different levels of diversity at Hereford High which it has been deprived of for some time.”
In addition to the numerous clubs and activities at Hereford, we now have a Future Democrat Club advised by Ms. Campbell and a Future Conservative Caucus Club whose adviser is Mrs. Dinkins. Patrick Anderson (12), President of the Conservative Club, explained that in the meetings members “debate topics that relate to their conservative views.” Everyday each person in the club brings in a topic and one is picked randomly out of a hat for debate and discussion. Patrick said, “Not everyone has the same views; we want to see what everyone thinks.” Regarding the relationship between the Democrat and Conservative clubs, Patrick said, “Oh yeah, it’s not like we’re bashing each other. We just thought that both sides should be available to Hereford.” Patrick ensures that all members of both clubs are civil with each other and there aren’t any negative attitudes.
To show what these clubs are all about, the Conservative and Democrat clubs will meet to debate different topics. Outside his Latin class, Patrick Anderson spoke about the current status of debate plans saying, “I personally discussed with one of the Democrat Club leaders what the rules should be and what we should be doing.” Regarding preparation, he explained, “We’re trying to get each one of our members to debate properly.” His goal is for members to “learn the quality of debating and that it’s not just to bash each other.” He wants to bring up important viewpoints and acknowledge each other’s ideas and opinions.
The Democrat Club is hard at work as well. Max Nozick (11) said that club members regularly bring in articles regarding current events to discuss their views on them. He explained that they are going to start preparing to debate. “We’ll be getting the questions soon,” However, Max also revealed that the Democrat Club is “having trouble getting membership because we’re in a very Conservative area.” Max explained that the Democrats are waiting for more people to join to get a better idea of what the club is all about. Despite this challenge, he still maintains a positive attitude for the debate and invites everyone to come! The debate, moderated by Christian Parsons (12), will be held in October and will take place in the library.
