Introducing Stuyvesant’s New Clubs

Stuyvesant’s Self-Esteem Club

Juniors Steve Wang and Maggie Xu were texting one day when they realized how much being at Stuyvesant had hurt their perception of themselves and their capabilities. “Since we’re constantly surrounded by incredibly smart and talented people, we always [feel] as though we aren’t quite good enough, and that really destroyed our self confidence,” Xu said. They weren’t the only ones who felt this way. In group chats with classmates and friends, Xu and Wang saw many other students struggle with low self-esteem even though they all thought highly of each other. This, they realized, was a common theme among many Stuyvesant students. To help students combat low self-esteem, Xu and Wang decided to create a club that focused on the self-esteem aspect of mental health.

The two founded Stuyvesant’s Self-Esteem club in late November to create a safe space for people to talk about self-esteem issues without any judgment. Their vision of the club was one of a laid-back peer support group where members could all share their feelings and relate to one another.

“We are planning on meeting every other Monday. During the meetings, main [focuses] will be sharing our concerns, asking for advice from peers who have experienced similar feelings, and finding ways to improve on the aspects that we don’t admire in ourselves without pushing ourselves down. And obviously, [we will be] focusing on learning to accept, if not love, the traits that we tend to dislike,” Xu commented.

A main thing that differentiates Stuyvesant’s Self-Esteem club from other mental health clubs at Stuyvesant (e.g. Stuy Limitless, Students Against Destructive Decisions) is that it focuses exclusively on self-esteem. “This allows us to dive deeper into the topic and hopefully allow our members to fully understand self-esteem and how it plays into our lives,” Wang explained.

Xu added, “We knew that there were already many clubs that focused on mental health, which is amazing, and we wanted a club that focused specifically on self-esteem rather than themes such as depression.”

They believe Stuyvesant’s Self-Esteem club can be a valuable resource to every individual at Stuyvesant. “We want to make this club very welcoming and laid-back, and for anyone considering, I’d say to come to a meeting or two and see if it’s something you’d like to be a part of! It’s a chance to meet new people, many of whom may share concerns for things you’re stressing over, and we are also [a] very low-commitment club, so [there’s] no harm in joining,” Xu commented.

For their club’s future, the main goal is to have steady members and foster a supportive, helpful, relaxing, and welcoming environment. “I think we're both happy with the club just being a very chill space for people to talk about their issues, but one of our dreams for the club would be to potentially bring guest speakers [and] professionals in to talk about self-esteem professionally,” Wang added.

Wang and Xu are also on journeys to better their own self-esteem. Both of them were willing to share their personal struggles with mental health and how they overcame those obstacles.

“I've struggled with many severe anxiety issues in the past and still do sometimes, and a large part of it was due to just not feeling good about myself, whether it be my appearance [or] grades. In fact. I was very hesitant to even create the club because I kept thinking, ‘What if nobody comes to meetings,’ and ‘What if people don't like it.’ But then we pushed ourselves to create it because we realized that our fear was only worsening our self-esteem issues, and that creating this club would be an excellent way to grow alongside other people and help each other become our best selves,” Wang shared.

“Personally, I wasn’t even sure if I was fit to lead this club, when the amount of respect and love I have for myself tends to be very low, but we decided to make this club as a way to learn to appreciate ourselves more while helping others who experience similar struggles [...],” Xu shared. “I’ve experienced pretty severe issues with depression and lack of self-esteem, so if this in any way can help anyone else that shares these issues, or even so much as find other friends who I can relate to, it’d be wonderful.”

Stuy FC

“Stuy FC is a club that brings together all the soccer fans of Stuy, regardless of skill level,” sophomore Yousef Amin said. Amin, a passionate soccer fan and a member of the Peglegs, Stuyvesant’s boys’ soccer team, is the founder of Stuyvesant’s Football Club, or Stuy FC. P.E. teacher, Vincent Miller, is Stuy FC’s faculty advisor.

Amin was inspired to start Stuy FC after seeing many of his friends upset after not making the school’s soccer team. “I was like, ‘You know what, why don’t we just make this club? We’ll have a lot of fun [and] take some stress off our hands.’ It’s low-commitment. It’s a great club to be [in with a] great atmosphere to accommodate other people’s interest,” he said.

Weekly meetings, typically on Tuesdays or Fridays, either take place on Asphalt Greenfields, the soccer field next to Stuyvesant, or in rooms on the fourth floor. During meetings, Stuy FC members partake in recreational activities related to soccer including playing games, practicing drills, and watching soccer games (especially Champion Leagues on Tuesdays). Members also play soccer video game series and simulations such as the global soccer game association, FIFA, using Stuy FC’s consoles.

Amin encourages anyone with any interest in soccer to join Stuy FC. When asked what he would say to a prospective member, he responded, “I’d say go for it. If you’re a soccer fan, if you want to learn about soccer, if you want to be in a chill environment [and] take school off your hands because Stuy is very stressful, [or] if you want to just relax with some buddies, watch some soccer, play soccer, play some video games, it’s a great place to hangout.” On what he hopes for his club’s future, Amin said, “I hope someone takes over the presidency role, and I hope it’s big. I hope a lot of people have fun.”

Architecture Club

After waiting two months for seniors to continue last year’s Architecture club on Stuy Activities, sophomore Md Hoque decided to restart the club himself. Though Hoque has limited experience in architecture, it is something that interests him and a field he wants to pursue as a career. “I wanted to join the club from last year but I couldn’t as I said, so my drafting teacher told me to make the club because [the seniors] weren’t going to make it,” Hoque explained. He cited an issue with funding and Stuy Activities not accepting the old club’s rechartering as a reason for the seniors not being able to revive it.

As the president of Stuyvesant’s current Architecture club, Hoque had to first gather his three vice presidents: sophomores Nozima Nurullaeva, Mitchel Fogel, and Alisha Heng in order to successfully restart the club. The next step was to submit numerous essays answering questions Stuy Activities provided, with each person writing one essay. “Honestly, it wasn’t that bad, but there are three parts of the process and that is probably the most frustrating part: the fact that you have to wait such a long time just to get it actually approved,” Hoque commented.

Stuyvesant’s Architecture club began to have meetings every Thursday around the middle of October. Club members are divided into five or six teams with four members in each. “We broke it up into different teams because there [weren’t] enough materials from last year left over, and we didn’t have any funding, so we might as well just work in teams and help each other grow as a team,” Hoque explained. All the teams work on building their own designs.

The planning and building process for a design is long because members first have to make orthographics, two-dimensional drawings of a three-dimensional object with several drawings to show additional views of the object. Next, members have to make an online sketch or a 3D version using SketchUp, a 3D modeling computer program. After that, members can finally start physically building. Hoque shares that his members have recently started the building process with many of his teams laying their materials and starting to create their foundations.

Many members focus on Greek and Roman architecture. “They created a design for Greek architecture and they created one for Roman architecture. Since we don’t have enough materials, I told them to combine the two together to make a Greco-Roman [structure]. Some of them have started building domes and stuff. That is pretty cool,” Hoque shared about one team.

When his teams are finished, Hoque is planning on conducting a competition. Whichever team makes the best structure and wins the club competition will win a small prize, such as a gift card. They will also be able to build their structure again to enter a competition outside of school that the club will sign up for. Hoque’s main objective for the future is for the club to start entering real competitions by the next semester.

“People might think that the Architecture club is very serious and that it’s meant to propel you forward and [is] just a hard, [rigorous] study,” Hoque stated. But he soon clarified that this is not the case. “We don’t really emphasize on strictness like, for example, the Robotics club; it’s like if you’re not that good and you don’t participate that often, you’ll most likely be kicked out or left on the side. But we’re not like that. We basically emphasize on everyone working together, and if you don’t want to work together because it’s a very hard day for you, we let you leave early.” He describes the Architecture club as a chill environment and a safe, free zone where you can build whatever you want. His philosophy of leading his members is: “If you just want to build, go ahead,” he said. The only major commitment is to show up to a majority of meetings.

Many members of Stuyvesant’s Architecture club are motivated to come back to meetings and continue to contribute because of the fun they have. “That’s all I want, to be honest. If you have fun in building what you want, you might want to continue it. And if you don’t want to have fun doing it, you’re going to lose focus even if you’re good at it,” Hoque said.

Stuyvesant Animal Association

Juniors Vincent Huang, Penny Wang, Irene Chen, Weini Zhou, and Mung Yao Jia are the founders of Stuyvesant Animal Association. The idea to start Stuyvesant Animal Association sparked in their heads in early November when they realized there weren’t many animals clubs at Stuy. Huang is a passionate dog lover, and Wang used to own a rabbit named Mochi who passed away. Other animal clubs focus on specific animals, while Stuyvesant Animal Association focuses on all animals.

The main goal of Stuyvesant Animal Association is to foster an animal-loving community at Stuyvesant. To achieve this, the founders plan on connecting members to volunteer opportunities at animal shelters or at different events for various charities and organizations.

Another activity Stuyvesant Animal Association will focus on is fundraising. Each month, members will choose a different animal and will focus on fundraising for that animal specifically. Huang plans for members to make merchandise geared toward chosen animals, such as pins and plushies, to sell near the second-floor scanners.

“We also want the club to feel like a family, so we want all the members to be close to each other,” Huang said. “That’s why we’re doing a lot of icebreakers like Secret Santa, and we’re putting sort of an animal spin on everything. But we just want the club to feel like a home. We’re just a very open club that connects people to volunteering with animals specifically rather than just community service, so that is pretty fun too.”

Huang hopes Stuyvesant Animal Association will be a comforting place where people can have fun and relax with friends while volunteering. Meetings are once or twice a month and usually take place on the third floor. Future outdoor meetings are also planned where members can have picnics and bring their pets.

On what he aspires for the club’s future, Huang said, “I really hope that this club lives on so that it has a legacy. I don’t want the club to just die out when leaders die out. I want it to continue on and be like this big thing at Stuy.”

Mixed-Race Coalition

Sophomore May Hathaway wasn’t sure what she wanted to do during her Stuyvesant career when she was still a freshman. She realized near the end of freshman year that she wanted to help other freshmen that also felt lost. “As a mixed person, when I was younger, I was kind of always stuck in between, so I wanted to create a space where a lot of mixed people could share their experiences,” Hathaway said.

Having an immigrant mother from China and a European father, Hathaway experienced a clashing of two different cultures and ideas.

Hathaway thinks that a significant problem is the lack of palpable attention regarding the mixed community. “[The Mixed-Race Coalition] is super important because I feel like we’re definitely underrepresented, especially in the media,” she said. “You see people call for diversity, and of course there is diversity, but you rarely see mixed people, mixed characters, mixed actors, anything like that.”

This is the only club at Stuyvesant that is focused exclusively on mixed experiences, which can help mixed people or anyone that feels stuck in between two worlds have a place where they can share their experiences.

The coalition is still a small club, but Hathaway hopes that more mixed people at Stuyvesant will attend meetings. The club meets on the third floor, usually on Wednesdays. “We talk a lot about experiences especially regarding race, and we’ve talked about different aspects, like language and being connected to your family in different cultures,” Hathaway explained. The Mixed-Race Coalition is a low-commitment club, and Hathaway insists that if anyone is thinking about attending meetings, they should definitely do so. The club is welcoming and is centered around discussion.

As for future aspirations, Hathaway wants more people to be aware of the Mixed-Race Coalition. “We want more members to join the conversation,” Hathaway said. “Because more experiences equals better discussions.”