Unite!

Project Theme: Belonging and cross-cultural connection

Target Audience and Location: School community at Union High School in Camas, WA.

Vision: A welcoming and connected school community of diverse students engaged in meaningful extracurricular activities to promote and develop belonging.

Mission: Unite! increases student engagement in school clubs, organizations and activities by hosting club match events and a club showcase.

Project Description: Scholar Jean Lin and educator Scholar Erik Wiitanen knew that there had to be a solution to increasing student engagement in extracurricular activities at their school. They discovered that though their large school had numerous, interesting and diverse clubs, only 20% of students participated in them, a majority of which were AP students. As an involved student on campus, Jean wanted to dig deeper into how she could connect students to pre-existing opportunities while fostering a deeper sense of community.

After some community engagement efforts, which included surveying those highly involved in clubs and those that were not, the team discovered that one main reason why many students were not involved was because they were not aware of or did not fully understand the types of opportunities and clubs that existed. Unite! was born as a way to help clubs better share what they do and why in inclusive and welcoming ways while simultaneously learning what students less involved were most interested in. Through a club match event, interested students filled out a short survey about their interests and hobbies and club leaders created one-minute videos to share more about their club and why a student should join. Team members will then sort through the surveys to match students with potential clubs.

Their goal is to reduce and limit barriers to joining a club, help clubs better promote their opportunities, and support and encourage students to join. They are planning a final event that will be a club showcase so clubs can highlight their activities and success to inspire rising high school freshmen to get involved early in their high school career.

Watch this team's project presentation at our virtual showcase event!