Students started trickling into the auditorium at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday May 6, the penultimate Model United Nations (MUN) symposium and the first symposium in person since the school shut down over a year ago. People sat with two seats between them, but still talking and laughing, a stark difference from the silence which preceded every online MUN symposium. This is one of the first in-person club meetings this year, after clubs have been forced to adapt to new schedules, new schedules, and changes from platform to platform. 

Since in-person learning restarted, club life has begun its return as well. While clubs would usually be winding down, some clubs have decided to continue after they usually would end so they can have an in-person meeting before the school year ends.

Despite the Scholastic Bowl season having ended a while ago, they met for an in-person match last week. In that meeting things looked almost normal, people talking, joking, interacting in ways that had been made impossible by the pandemic. “In-person this past year wasn’t really much different than any other year. There would occasionally be a problem hearing someone with their mask on, but besides that, the flow of the games stayed pretty normal.” Jonah Gross, the head of Team A of scholastic bowl, said. 

This return of in-person meetings is the culmination of a year of work for many clubs, a year of adaptation and while some clubs are starting to come back, many aren’t. “It’s a continuation of what’s been going on now with clubs just having the option to meet in person, if they so choose. Zoom still works, and I think that’s probably the most convenient and inclusive because not all students are in the building, and so that’s remained the way most club meetings have taken place,” Joe Bruno, Dean of Student life for the Upper School said.

While these meetings have been filled mostly with masked students sitting separate from one another, there still remains the question of how to integrate the students who chose to remain remote. “We had a practice last week and I said, ‘You’re welcome to Zoom in, just let me know in advance.’ One student did that and basically we did what I did for class, where we set up the mic and the Zoom so everyone can see each other,” Ethan Levine, faculty sponsor to Scholastic Bowl, said,  “It was very similar to just how I do class, so while definitely not perfect, better than nothing.” 

There are other differences between how meetings would usually be conducted and how they are now. “What I would say is different is the ability to clump together. I think it reduces some of the fun when we’re not able to shout and banter and jump around, but overall it’s very similar,” Grace Conrad, one of the four MUN captains, said.

To get approved to start back in-person is very simple if the club is less than 18 people. All that has to be done is get the faculty sponsor on board and email Mr. Bruno to find space. If the club is larger, a proposal has to be submitted to the medical subcommittee. “We wrote a proposal and we sent it to the medical subcommittee, who were very helpful,” Alex Carlin, another of the MUN captains, said.  “They worked with us to redo the proposal because we proposed the Harris Center and they were like ‘no no no, that’s not enough space, use the auditorium.’ We then reached out to Mr. Bruno and he basically said yes, and so it was a really easy process.”

Ultimately, clubs have lost a bit of life, something students hope is coming back. “I hope people come away with the sense of community established in our club, something I believe wasn’t present over Zoom, and something I’m so happy is back, ” Ivy Jacobs, another MUN captain, said.