The meeting was smooth from start to finish, beginning with introductions to this year’s senior board. Axelson and Howell are taking the charge as co-presidents, Francesca Disanto and Ryan Cohen are tackling being secretaries, Alex Lujan is treasurer, and Gwyneth Pouliot is the social media manager. From there, the club got right to business and brainstormed its’ events for the year. They used the whiteboard in the front of the classroom and filled it with ideas for new events and the ways they were going to expand on past events, like Giving Thanks week. Axelson is excited for the return of in-person events and meetings and looks forward to some of the new things AYS is trying this year, saying, “A lot of our events got canceled last year, so we have a lot to make up for this year”. The club’s Go Green week, which was supposed to make its debut almost two years ago but was canceled due to the pandemic, will be happening later on this year.

As most students and staff know, Zoom meetings are not the same as in-person meetings. It was hard to run a club during the pandemic, since building community over screens took a tremendous amount of effort. All members, but especially the board, are excited to see members face-to-face again. Howell comments that she “cannot wait for the events to come this year”, and that she thinks the club is going to have a strong comeback from the pandemic.