Seventeen clubs have been approved for the spring semester to join the grand total of 119 clubs at UHS.

Among the new clubs, seven are community service clubs, two are academic clubs, three are interest clubs and five are art and culture clubs. 

Clubs at UHS are often created to extend student interests in UHS classes, sports, or other activities. 

One such club is Tennis Club. Tennis Club is a club that brings UHS tennis players opportunities to grow their passion for tennis outside of being on the tennis team through fundraising to provide financial support to kids with interests in tennis, volunteering as a proctor for children through their partnership with the tennis organization, Max Performance Academy, and hosting tournaments. 

“I noticed that many high school players here at UHS are unable to enjoy their passion [for tennis] due to the limited court space and roster spots,” President of Tennis Club and junior Christina Zhang said.  “The Tennis Foundation aims to provide a network that can create more opportunities for all players to improve together.” 

The Birding Club, started by senior Charles Tian, reflects an interest found through Science Olympiad, hosted by the UHS Science Club.

Through hosting online lessons, field trips for elementary and middle school students and club meetings that allow club members to teach their own classes, the Birding Club hopes to expand interest in ornithology beyond Science Olympiad. 

“Science Olympiad is not accessible to most UHS students, and therefore we started the UHS Birding Club to provide a community for other students who are interested in birds,” Tian said.  “The second part of our club is to raise awareness for birds and spark interest in birds in our community.” 

As the club has grown since the beginning of the semester, the club has seen an increase in interest in birding, especially within their club communities on social media. 

“Birding and ornithology have been largely overlooked in UHS,” Tian said.  “However, as people have started to join our club, we have seen more activities related to birding. For example, [students] like Caleb Kusumo and Sasha Cahill are active through social media and post incredible photos of birds they see.” 

Similar to the Birding Club, Fashion with a Passion’s co-president senior Rina Lee explains an interest she felt was unmet in other UHS clubs and classes. 

“My friend and co-president Julie and I are creative people who also enjoy fashion,” Lee said.  “After [lockdown], the fashion class was cut so we decided to create a fashion club where we could use the resources from that class to create whatever we wanted.” 

Fashion with a Passion also hopes to create a community and space for students to express their interests in fashion. 

Some other clubs at UHS are formed through inspirations outside of UHS. Some through merging life experiences with hobbies, others through social activism, and some others to join together UHS to improve life skills. 

Kaleidoscope Jewelry Club President sophomore Leily Eghbali found herself merging inspirations from a volunteering opportunity with her hobby of jewelry making. 

“This idea first began Summer of 2021 when I volunteered at Kaiser Downey a couple days a week to work personally with the children with cancer there,” Eghbali said.  “I got to see, in depth, the struggles that they faced, but also their inspirational hope and smiles throughout everything they go through. With my neighbor, we both found jewelry-making as a fun hobby to keep us busy during everything that was going on with the pandemic. I started a small business on Etsy and began to sell my necklaces for the same cause. After summer was over, I decided to combine those two things that made me happy, and the result became this club!”

Kaleidoscope Jewelry sells jewelry at UHS events and will be offering seniors the opportunity to create senior souvenirs such as senior tassels at their club meetings. 

Act for Change Club President sophomore Luba Al-khalili noticed a different need in the UHS community through her personal interest in social activism.

“As an activist, I found that it was hard for youth and students to take part in politics as their opinions and calls to action are often disregarded,” Al-khalili said. “With motives to electrify buses in IUSD, I found that if one truly seeks change, they are able to achieve it. Students have so many great ideas that are often disregarded because of their age.” 

Act for Change plans on creating a podcast called The Non-Dinner Table Talk to inform students of current events and provide new perspectives through guests on the show.

New clubs this semester also include Adore Animals, Art and STEM Perspectives, Crochet for Care, CS+Social Good, ECHO Club, Environmental Policy Club, ISCC, Lit Magazine, March for Our Lives, National Art Honor Society, Operation Origami and Speech Club, all of which offer more communities for UHS students to express themselves, explore their interests and engage in a wide variety of activities. 

To view the full list of clubs, contact and social media information, and meeting times, please refer to UHS Clubs under ASB on the UHS website.