This story was updated at 8:33 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 7, to correct junior Jasmine Lee’s leadership role in Key Club.

A crowd of students flooding the quad during break.

Chanting, shouting and the occasional passing out of free candy.

This has been what Club Rush was all about during the traditional three-day event, usually held within the first month or so of the school year for campus organizations to promote their groups in hopes of recruiting new members.

But because Sunny Hills has yet to return to in-person instruction, this year’s ASB-led event couldn’t occur. Instead, the ASB posted on Friday, Sept. 4, a Google Slides link on the Sunny Hills website featuring information from 66 of 72 active clubs, including 14 new ones, in alphabetical order.

“We first thought of making a video, but then it was just way too inconvenient and unorganized,” said ASB co-activities commissioner junior Ellen Kim, who with fellow activities commissioners senior Kathryn Aurelio and junior Jasmine Lee put the slides together to post. “We considered a Zoom meeting with breakout rooms and then a video, [but] the Zoom meeting can lag, there are difficulties, and we weren’t exactly sure how each club would promote on there.”

So the three girls eventually chose the Google Slides platform for its easy-to-navigate format.

“[Instead of] scrolling through a 40-minute video, you can just look at the clubs in alphabetical order with a bunch of visuals,” Aurelio said.

Each group shared a personalized slide to the girls through Google Drive, who consolidated them into a slideshow.

“[There were] a lot of good ones,” Lee said. “Everyone worked really hard; I was really impressed.”

Similar to the usual cardboard trifolds displaying the benefits of joining, the slides contain overviews of the clubs and any links leading to extra information like a Google Classroom or Remind join link, social media handle, external slideshow or video.

Coding Club president senior Yeadam Kim contributed in completing his club’s slide, which has a Google Form, Remind information and times his organization will meet on Zoom.

“Google Slides will work more effectively than actually doing Club Rush in the quad because everyone can be exposed to all the clubs at one time,” Yeadam Kim said. “Making slides are easier and less strenuous than preparing a trifold because I’m really bad at art.”

eSports co-president junior Ezra Vlad predicted his club’s slide (which co-president senior Kyle Kang compiled) would attract new members.

“This year, Valorant will attract the most people since it was recently released and was very popular in its early stages of testing,” said Vlad, who also plays the first-person shooter game. “If you like playing any video games, I highly recommend joining eSports because it is a great place to meet people who also love games that you play [or] join a competitive team.”

Since the first day of school this year, club presidents could hold meetings during the Student Support period in addition to break and lunch as usual, ASB co-adviser Mike Paris said.

To promote the virtual Club Rush, the ASB Instagram page posted a video on Sept. 3 encouraging students to look at the Google Slides as well as a Snapchat poster on Lee and Aurelio’s personal Snapchat accounts.

Since students can access the slideshow for a week, finding a suitable club online provides a less stressful and more relaxed experience compared to earlier in-person Club Rush events, Lee said.

“It’s a lot more convenient this year because one, it’s not spread out over the course of three days, and two, it’s not as crowded and in such a limited amount of time,” she said. “Last year, you had to sign up, wait in this line and write your ID down … but you can just flip through this slide show, sign up for the club you like and do it on your own time.”

Aurelio also remarked on the flexibility that came with moving the event online.

“In the past, a lot of my friends stayed away from Club Rush because it was claustrophobic [with] people shouting in your face,” she said. “You can [still] get the true essence of the club when you look on the slides because you actually have content instead of people bribing you with candy.”

Club leaders who would normally leave third period early to set up and miss out on exploring clubs on their own will also benefit from the online format, said Lee, who is the president of Key Club.

“It’s definitely easier because presidents don’t have to do anything except make a Google Slide,” she said. “If [we held Club Rush in-person,] we would have to make a trifold, get candy or some incentive and set everything up.”

Besides the free sweets, an online Club Rush also does away with the in-person connections students develop from the event.

“Obviously, clicking through some Google Slides is different [than] going around and actually talking to people,” Ellen Kim said. “But next year, we might even do the physical Club Rush and the Google slides [since it’s more convenient].”

Paris said the ASB does plan on combining the two facets of the event next year but also mentioned the positive aspects of the situation.

“We all miss the live interaction on campus in everything, and that includes Club Rush,” he said. “The positives are we have developed resilience and learned to adjust to changing circumstances.”

To the ninth-graders searching for clubs, Ellen Kim gave a suggestion based on her personal experience:

“In my freshman year, I only joined one club, and I really regret that because doing four years is more advantageous to a specific club when you’re applying for cabinet positions,” she said. “I definitely recommend freshmen to check it out and sign for clubs.”

For the students who struggle to discover clubs they enjoy participating in, Aurelio encouraged them to stay open-minded.

“It only takes a few minutes to scroll through and see what [clubs] pop out,” she said. “You never know, your next four years could be centered around [a] club or multiple clubs. You can meet new people and make new experiences.”

The six remaining clubs that didn’t submit a slide do not have immediate consequences, but the missing slide will be taken into consideration in the future when the commissioners check clubs for possible suspensions in the first quarter club report, ASB co-activities commissioner junior Ellen Kim said.