DECA hosted the annual Harker mock conference on Nov. 5 followed by a noncompetitive Leadership and Competitive Excellence conference last Friday. DECA Shine, a recognition program, also started this year; Ayush Vyas (10) is the first DECA Shine member for DECA Launch, a comprehensive training program for first-year members.

“We really try to foster not just one of those two aspects but all of them merged together: being a great competitor in competition but also being a great leader outside of the competitive world,” said Vanessa Tyagi (11), DECA vice president of press relations.

Harker UNICEF hosted a trick-or-treat fundraiser, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, in Los Gatos to raise money for humanitarian causes. They ate in Los Gatos and then split into three groups based on the club’s internal officer teams to ask for loose change rather than candy from local households. About 30 students attended in total.

“The best part about Harker UNICEF is helping people in need in third-world countries, like Syria,” said Phil Han (9), who attended the event.

Students led by Harker CareerConnect attended Quickbook Connect, a convention of entrepreneurs hosted by Intuit, a financial software business, on Oct. 25 at the San Jose Convention Center. The convention provided an opportunity for students to explore the ways that small businesses grow and micro-manage their affairs.

“There are usually pretty successful entrepreneurs,” said Bryan Wang (9), who attended the event. “You also get to see cool speakers. For example, we saw the CEO of Intuit and also this guy who’s the founder of this national humane society and this soapstone project where they make, like, 80 million bars of soap every year for children in third-world countries.”

Green Team members participated in a river clean-up at the Guadalupe River in San Jose, California, on Oct. 15. Seventeen students joined 8 teacher chaperones on a trip to earn community service hours while purging local natural habitats of human waste, collecting an estimated 2,000 pounds of trash along with the other groups that were there. The club also ran a clothing drive for Sacred Heart Community Service from Oct. 3-21.

“It was a really good experience because we all got to see a side of San Jose we normally don’t see,” Green Team secretary Anika Banga (11) said.

Math Club competed in a number of math competitions, among them the weekly online competition Arete, formerly known as Interstellar, and the monthly California Math League (CAML) contest. Arete is held weekly during long lunches, and the club hosted the first CAML round this year on Oct. 21.

“We also did a team round for Arete, and that’s where you get into teams of two or three people and you solve problems with them,” Math Club member Cynthia Chen (9) said. “I liked the team round the best because you get to collaborate with your friends and solve problems, and it’s pretty fun.”

WiSTEM conducted an open discussion on the election, especially focusing on gender gaps. Last week, during their club week, they sold pearl milk tea and homemade brownies to fund an organization called Wiser.

“We’re trying to raise money so that girls in rural Kenya can get access to health care and education that we really do take for granted,” WiSTEM vice president May Gao (12) said.

Various clubs held club weeks in the past month. The week of Oct. 10 featured UnPlugged, Oct. 17 Make a Birthday Wish, Oct. 23 Investment Club, last Monday WiSTEM and today DECA. Club weeks allow featured clubs to fundraise for their cause and host special events during their weeks.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on November 16, 2016.

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Meena Gudapati

WiSTEM conducted an open discussion on the election, especially focusing on gender gaps. Last week, during their club week, they sold pearl milk tea and homemade brownies to fund an organization called Wiser.