With the fall season beginning and the holiday season approaching, clubs at Clackamas High School have begun to plan events to bring out the student body’s school spirit. One of the most popular and accessible clubs at Clackamas High is the Multicultural Student Union Club. 

Just like the rest of the clubs at Clackamas High School, you apply for these clubs at the club rush. A school event dedicated to advertising clubs like MSU, a space where people of all different cultures can come together and celebrate their diverse ethnic backgrounds. 

Elizabeth Tran is the club’s president, whose job along with the office board members Jane Clack and secretary Charlie Wong, is to create slideshows for the meetings, plan activities, and order food for the club members. MSU’s purpose is to help students at Clackamas High School develop and strengthen their own cultural identities while also gaining perspectives and learning about other cultural identities. “MSU is a once-a-month celebration of culture and diversity! We host potlucks, parties, and games, all with the intention of creating a unified community at Clackamas,” says Elizabeth Tran, a 12th grader at Clackamas High School who believes her job is to make sure club members are engaged and are having fun coming together as a diverse set of students. A few of these activities and events that are set up are a Halloween jeopardy, as well as a pizza party for the first meeting, and MSU’s annual Thanksgiving Potluck on November 16th.

Yet, What sets the Multicultural Student Union apart from the other clubs and affinity groups at Clackamas High? “Our student union is slightly different from others, as we are multi-ethnic, representing individuals from across the globe. We are one big melting pot!,” replies Elizabeth when asked what sets MSU apart from the other clubs. MSU is a space with multiple students from multiple races while most affinity groups focus on one race so that all the students can come together and relate with one another. Diana Van, a member of MSU says, “With the other affinity groups mostly sharing a common race or sexuality, I wanted something that would help expand my viewpoint instead of being with a like-minded community the whole time.” Diana also talks about how she wanted to join a club with different opinions and viewpoints on certain subjects. Another member Britney Nguyen recalls the reason why she wanted to join MSU, which was to meet new people from other cultures. “I wanted to see what made us so alike yet different,” she explains.  

Overall, the club leaders of MSU are constantly looking for ways to improve while also taking members’ input into account. “MSU invites students of any race or ethnicity to have fun, play games, eat food, and most importantly learn about other cultures around the world,” explains Britney Nguyen. With the club having a flexible schedule, as club meetings are once a month, and students of all grades, cultural backgrounds, and sexualities being able to join, could this be the reason for the club’s rise in student engagement?