The Bright Year Ahead for AYS

At Your Service (AYS) is one of the few leadership clubs on the CdM campus. All of the leadership clubs on campus have specific focuses, and AYS is promoting and participating in community service. The first AYS meeting of the year started off strong with a room packed with new and returning members from all grades. The room’s conversations quieted as this year’s AYS co-presidents Ava Axelson and Lexie Howell stood up at the front of the class.

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.