The environmental awareness club Esociety was voted by their peers to be the CLOG of the month for the month of January, MHS CLOG commissioners announced.
Esociety is an environmental awareness club encouraging its members to take action and live a more environmentally responsible lifestyle, Esociety President Lena Doan said. The club fulfills its mission by hosting monthly meetings, community service events, and webinars, all related to helping the environment, Doan added. Esociety also promotes environmental awareness through their social media and their collaborations with other clubs, Doan said.
“We are all aware of the environmental issues that are going on in the world today, especially because the pandemic has given us extra time to reflect on our decisions and plan towards our future,” Doan said in a Zoom interview. “So, definitely getting started to take small steps to educate yourself on the world’s environmental issues is very important. Our club encourages its members to take action in solving the world’s environmental problems. Small steps toward environmental sustainability will eventually lead to bigger leaps. … We definitely encourage this positive growth mindset and help our members along their journey in becoming environmentalists.”
Through Esociety’s many events and activities, the club gives its members many opportunities to branch out and take action towards helping the environment, Esociety Treasurer Vy Dinh said. At the beginning of the school year, Esociety collaborated with the nonprofit organization Our City Forest and hosted multiple tree-planting events, Dinh added. The club has also held multiple recycling events and even a trash cleanup at the Guadalupe River in San Jose, Dinh said. The club’s mission, however, is to educate the community about a range of topics considered to be outside the scope of typical environmental issues, Dinh added. For example, Esociety has collaborated with other clogs like Key Club, Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA), and Black Student Union (BSU) to host webinars on climate change, skincare, and environmental racism, Esociety President Lena Doan said.
As for the club’s future, Esociety obtains very high aspirations, Doan said. “One of the really cool projects that we are doing now is we are working with an Eagle Scout to install a water filtration system at our school,” Doan said. “The water filtration system is planned to open at the start of when school is back in person. Once the quarantine is over, we are also hoping to be able to host more in-person events, as well as community service that will help better our environment and city, as well as ourselves.”
Esociety’s biggest achievement so far is its success despite the quarantine, Esociety Board Member Satvika Iyer said. Connecting with their club members and keeping their club members engaged has been a big factor in the club’s online success, Iyer added.
“Connecting with our members was definitely hard at first, but with the help of various events and interaction through our posts, we were able to bridge the virtual gap to some degree,” Iyer said. “A lot of planning goes into our monthly themes, and members are given active platforms to contribute to our club’s direction…. What has made us more efficient is definitely thinking of our club as the cornerstone between the beginnings of a sustainable lifestyle and staying informed on issues we must care about.”
Quarantine also shone light on areas where the club could improve, Iyer said. The club’s ability to recognize their weaknesses and become stronger has also been a big factor in their success, Iyer added.
“Definitely in the course of this semester compared to the last through the lens of a board member, it is clear that we have gotten into the groove and found our niche between informing and sharing important environmental developments as well as incorporating various webinars, collaborations, and fundraisers,” Iyer said. “In the future, service opportunities and direct ways to display the effect of environmentalism in our community such as beach clean-ups may be possible, but in terms of the near future, we plan to send letters to political officials on their views on sustainability and why they should take an approach of an emergency rather than moderation.”
Starting to educate yourself on environmental issues is something everyone should do, and Esociety is here to help those who are willing to take action, Doan said.