Leadership held the final Equity Academy of the year to discuss the overall success and future plans of campus diversity clubs on May 15.

Diversity Commissioner senior Lindsay Torres claims to have seen an upward trend in equity efforts and diversity acceptance on campus throughout the course of the school year. “I think people who were otherwise kinda like, ‘Oh, diversity, equity, that doesn’t really apply to me,’ are becoming more aware,” she said.

Along with Torres’s efforts, presidents and members of diversity clubs have gone out of their way this year to reach out to all of the student body. “I think Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) has done an amazing job this year, Asian Culture Appreciation club raised money, Women’s Awareness on Campus had their symposium and raised over $600, Black Student Union had their 1st dance and their 1st summit,” said Torres. “I think we’ve done an amazing job and I think this provided a nice sense of community for all of us to come together once a month and talk about equity.”

Junior Julia Zapanta, president of the Asian Culture Appreciation club, cited plans to grow the club for the following year. “We had our Asian Noodle eating contest for the 2nd year in the row, which a lot of people came to, but hopefully next year we can plan it even more and be less rushed,” she said. They are also hoping to get their upcoming events on the monthly flush.

According to junior Paige Love, president of SAGA, the club has also seen major growth this year. “It’s really crazy, when [junior Maddie House] and I joined last year, it was 10 people in a room just chatting– like we did names and pronouns maybe twice because we just all knew each other,” said Love. “We grew to 40 people, which was insane. In our 1st meeting, we didn’t have enough chairs to fill the room.”

According to current junior Jackie Artiaga, the appointed Diversity Commissioner for the 2019-2020 school year, there is a positive future for the Equity Academies. “We’re going to continue the diversity meetings monthly. We want to have the diversity clubs have their own personal mini-club day at the beginning of the year because usually club day is in September, so we want to have that in August to have people understand that there are meetings at the beginning of the year as well and to please join,” she said.

Torres believes the creation of equity-based academy meetings were a success that will continue to grow. “If you are diversity chair, then it is required to keep these meetings going so I think it’s super cool that that’s something I started. I think our equity academies will overall just grow and improve and I’m excited,” she said.

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