On Thursday September 27, 2018, Upper St. Clair High School hosted their annual RUSH activity for all the clubs. This year was a little different than the previous years because this year all students were allowed to participate, but in previous years it had just been open to the freshman. RUSH is how all the students become involved in all the different clubs in the school.

There is a plethora of clubs available in the high school for all the kids to get involved with and to further diverse their education. The clubs vary from foreign language clubs, to political clubs, to future doctors or businesses leaders, to baking club, and much more that allow one to follow their passions and to expand his/her knowledge about certain things. The students are encouraged to sign up for as many clubs that they want to participate in, but they are not required to attend all the meetings or even participate in any of the clubs at all, but this is a chance for them to explore their options and to see what is available to them.

The activity occurs during the lunch mods, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, so there is a better chance of getting a lot of people to come to the fair because a lot of students have a lunch, so they would be able to attend rush without missing class. Sarah Christensen, a freshman, describes her experiences at RUSH, “RUSH has allowed me to get to know students and participate in things I never thought I would.”  

Since this is the first year that everyone can participate in RUSH, it was a new experience for sophomores, juniors, and seniors because they were able to join new clubs that interested them, but that they were unable to join because RUSH was only open to freshman in previous years. Kelsey Riemer, a junior, says, “Even though I missed RUSH freshman year, I was able to go during junior year and I thought it was really cool because then I got to see all the clubs I wasn’t able to join freshman year and I was really interested in the clubs that have emerged since I was a freshman.”

There is at least one representative for each club during RUSH.  They are there to provide information and to help recruit new people for their clubs.  Many clubs sent out a volunteer sign-up list to have their current members help run the booth at RUSH.  Whether it was the the club’s president, vice president, secretary, or treasury, or just members of the club, a lot of people came out to help ensure that their club got a lot of new possible members. Shanthi Krishnaswamy, vice president of Spanish Club, says, “ “I joined Spanish club to advance my Spanish speaking skill, also during Spanish club we get to explore the culture of different Spanish speaking countries!” The clubs offered allow students to become educated on different cultures around the world.

The changes to the RUSH event seem to have been a success and the clubs at USC are looking forward to another great year.