OHS has no shortage of activities available for students to be involved in, with everything from marching band to FBLA. Amidst so many programs available, it may seem difficult to stand out, but there are many students who go above and beyond and are exceptionally involved in their community.
These students accomplish this level of achievement by taking things a step further, and being willing to take on added responsibilities out of school, which are oftentimes accompanied by a new role for the benefit of the club, or for their own personal achievement.
“So my sophomore year I went to audition, did an essay and everything and then I was chosen and became a DMA which is a drum major assistant which would mean that my senior year would be drum major,” said Evan Knudson, senior.
After her determination to become drum major for the OHS marching band, Knudson went through the process and was chosen to participate in the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
“[In] February this year auditions opened up. I had to perform a solo, march, and explain who I was in a video, and I got accepted. So for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade I’ll be marching piccolo,” Knudson said.
Though most of the time people choose the clubs they want to be a part of, sometimes, as is the case with SSEC, which stands for Superintendent Executive Council, students are selected to be a part of it.
“I was in NJHS and STUGO in seventh grade and eighth grade, so I had one of my teachers pick me to do this so I hadn’t really known about it until they just picked me and put it in and I was just like ‘oh this is cool’ and ended up continuing to do it until now,” said Preston Buhl, sophomore.
There are many clubs and activities that have assigned roles, while others put everyone on an equal playing field, such as the case with SSEC, where everyone works together instead of giving people different roles.
“We don’t have a president because we have two representatives from each of the main high schools; so what we do is we have a week where the executive council meets and we discuss what we are going to talk about in our next meetings, and what our main points will be, and then at the advisor council one of us will lead it, and then we’ll talk about that,” Buhl said.
Alongside being a part of SSEC, Buhl is also a member of STUGO and plays his part to help put on many of the events students see at OHS.
“We pretty much do all the big events like we do Homecoming, we do the assemblies, we did the carnival and parade, we organized all of that,” Buhl said.
High school comes with plenty of tough decisions, but sometimes clubs are able to present new opportunities that turn out to be the perfect fit, such as the case for one individual at OHS with joining FBLA eventually leading to them becoming a state officer.
“Starting junior year first semester, what I did is I joined a council and through this I was able to form connections with the current state officers as well as other members and so starting in January is when I actually applied for the position,” said Victoria Kirova, senior.
Since achieving her position, Kirova now works with others to accomplish their goals, while also helping other members of their organization.
“I’m on a team of eight other students from across Arizona, and so together we’re working to complete our program of work. It’s a clearly outlined set of goals that we have in FBLA in order to really utilize the resources that we have, and make the year successful for all of our members,” Kirova said.
With her work as a part of FBLA, Kirova gives credit where it’s due within the program for helping her to realize a passion of hers that will be useful many years down the road.
“I would say this position is primarily responsible for my career path because being in FBLA has [shown] me that my journey lies in business, and so now I’m going to be majoring in business with an emphasis in international relations and I would 100% credit that to FBLA,” Kirova said.
