Even though the first quarter of school at Parkway Central has been virtual, extracurricular activities and school clubs haven’t let that stop them and have continued to meet on Zoom. 

PCH players have started off the year by connecting theatre kids in high school with theater students in middle school through a pen pal system. At the first PCH players meeting, they hosted a virtual game day and played games where students joined on zoom and played games together online. If interested, PCH players have many resources available, including providing master theatre classes for free. 

“Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from Sept.8-Dec. 17, the theatre teachers are providing master classes in acting, tech and improv. We bring in professional guest artists to teach and share information to the students. We hope this will provide an additional resource for students while not performing right now,” Parkway Central theatre teacher, Nicole Voss said. 

PCH players hold their meetings on the first Wednesday of each month from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. on Zoom. Reach out to Voss through email or the Parkway Central Website if interested. 

Student Council is another club that has been in full swing this year. STUCO held elections for the 2020-2021 school year earlier this month and they are currently planning Homecoming, Week of Service, Day of Kindness, and staff appreciation.

Participation in STUCO has actually increased this year in size to 120 members. 

“Our goal for the year is to continue to honor our PCH traditions and start new ones. We want to keep our community connected through fun activities and helping out the community in a safe and distant environment,” STUCO sponser and business teacher Sarah Hale said. 

JSU (Jewish Student Union) hosted their first meeting Sept. 6 over Zoom. Rabbi Yitz Staum sponsors the club, and talks about how he’s been pleasantly surprised about how the meetings are going. 

“Since the onset of the pandemic there has been heavy reliance on virtual platforms which hampers the personal connection. It’s also a bit awkward when new people do participate since Zoom is not the greatest way to develop relationships,” Staum said. “I will say that I was very impressed with the JSU student leadership in being able to attract new students despite the hardships.”

The meeting last week was based on Rosh Hashanah and “its empowering message of the importance of every single human being,” Staum said. If interested in joining, please contact presidents Gabby Abowitz or Sydney Kolker. 

For the competitive crowd, Speech and Debate is gearing up for a unique season. Junior Fareeha Siddique talks about how Speech and Debate is focusing on soldiering on as much as possible by continuing weekly practices via Zoom and recruiting new members to join. 

“[My goal for the year is to] maintain a sense of normalcy while also building our community and retaining our weekly practices as much as possible. Whether or not we have tournaments, see each other in person, or have the same opportunities as normal years shouldn’t affect our team spirit,” Siddique said.