Environmental Club

No matter who you are, one thing that everyone can appreciate is a clean environment. At PHS, the club that understands this like no other is the environmental club. Environmental club works through small, student organized trash pickups as well as by taking part in larger community events, all with the goal of improving the state of the environment.

In an interview with Namrata Paudel, the president of the club, she addressed the mission, history, and her vision for the club.

“The mission [of environmental club] is to help clean up our local environment and to make an effort, as small as it may be, toward the goal of environmental care and awareness.”

She went on to talk about the club’s history and growth.

“Last year was a strange year for clubs, so we had to do a lot of adjusting. We didn’t get to do the annual Coastal Clean Up or go around and collect recycling at school like we used to. Instead we did just a lot of trash pickups at different parks in Woodland and a few attempts at social media awareness.”

While last year was a difficult year for many clubs, this year has presented its own set of challenges and also benefits. Namrata described the changes the club has undergone to reach the point it is at now:

“A couple of things have changed. We don’t really do recycling collection anymore because of scheduling conflicts and changes after the pandemic. I think the biggest change by far has been the sudden growth of the club this year. Since freshman year this club has been a pretty small one at Pioneer, especially last year when there were really only four or five members. This year we had so many people join and even after the expected initial boom following Club Rush, a lot have stuck around to participate which I just appreciate so much.”

When asked about the goals of the club in the future, Namrata had this to say:

“I’d like for us to continue doing more of the community events or activities. We’ve been doing mostly trash pickups so far and I’d like it if we branched out a bit more moving forward.”

With many members or with few, Namrata has done an excellent job leading the club through challenges and has organized the efforts of the environmental club. With the club larger than ever, the environment has an ally at PHS.