At the end of her sophomore year, junior Sarah Lee met with teachers and administrators to establish the Korean Culture Club. This year, Lee said the club consistently attracted around 20 students to meetings and events.

According to Michael Tarjan, assistant principal of student activities, foreign language clubs and culture clubs will be merged into one “umbrella club” starting in the 2015-2016 school year. He said the new “international club,” including Chinese Culture Club, Korean Culture Club, Hellenic Club and National Honor Societies, will give students the opportunity to share their culture with one another.

“It’s a plan to be more efficient,” said Tarjan. “Several kids over the years come to start new clubs having to do with culture, world language and academics, like honor societies. It seems as if the [number of members] go up and then drop off and the club ends in a year. We’re trying to find a way to incorporate everyone.”

Lee said she does not like the idea of a combined club because big clubs, such as Spanish and French Club, could “eat away” at the smaller clubs.

“I don’t want [an] ‘international club’ to turn into Spanish or French Club because at that point we aren’t able to achieve the goals that we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year, which was to build solidarity,” Lee said.

Tarjan said he is trying to get feedback from the students, teachers and administrators by setting up meetings with members of foreign language clubs to make the “best decision for everyone.”

“I know [there are] kids out there who wanted to have an Indo-Pak Club but they only had four [or] five kids,” said Tarjan. “Now this gives them an outlet to be part of something and embrace a culture that they’re interested in and share with others.”

Junior Melanie Holpert has been involved in trying to form a Slovak National Honor Society, but does not have enough students to form her own club. Under this “international club,” Holpert said she would be able to form her society and teach others about her culture.

“I think [one international club] is a great idea because the whole point of culture clubs is to get other people to appreciate other cultures and understand what they’re all about,” said Holpert. “You can still have your individual understanding of your culture, but everyone else will also.”

Lee said she feels she would lose members in the Korean Culture Club that are not interested in other cultures.

“Some people don’t want to [get involved in] other culture clubs,” said Lee. “[The Korean Culture Club] is a place for people to speak their own language and only indulge in a single culture that doesn’t get a lot of attention normally.”

With upcoming meetings, Lee said she was going to fight against the club.

“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know that my sponsor has been telling me if the students really don’t want this to happen, it probably won’t happen,” said Lee. “I feel like there’s enough of us that don’t want it, that [they’ll] have to listen to us.”