Bringing forth meaningful sports opportunities and cultural awareness, five new clubs have been welcomed on campus: Athletes4others, Viking Table Tennis, Korean Club, Go Club and Rubik’s Cube Club. Recently passed by the Legislative Council from January through March, these new clubs focus on unique student passions. 

“We’re very excited to see how each of these clubs serves our campus, and we wish them all the best as well as any clubs that may be passed or proposed in the future,” senior and ASB Vice President Allison Hsu said. 

Athletes4Others

At their first club meeting on March 14, the Athletes4Others service club introduced their members to their mission of providing athletic opportunities to underrepresented and underprivileged communities. Together, they hope to lead athletic camps and clinics for sports including basketball, soccer, tennis, volleyball and swimming.

“I believe our club will be really impactful for students from low income backgrounds and underfunded schools since the opportunities we offer are something that they never had a chance to grow up with,” senior and Athletes4Others vice president Jeffrey Su said. 

This club is a merge of two student-run organizations, Pinnacle Hoops and the Thunder Shots. Although those organizations were previously unaffiliated with Lynbrook, they both have made positive changes in the Bay Area. The coaches from Pinnacle Hoops, co-founded by Su, have raised $30,000 through private training and camps since June of 2020 in order to support student athletes from underprivileged areas. $5000 from these profits was donated to the ACE Charter Schools. The Thunder Shots, led by co-president Trevor Knotts, has run seasonal weekly free training sessions as well as hosted summer camps since the fall of 2020. In the fall of 2022, the two organizations collaborated for the first time and taught basketball and soccer to students from ACE Esperanza Middle School, ACE Empower Academy and ACE Inspire Academy.

“Working together, we could reach out to greater communities with more ease than before,” Su said. “We wanted to go further with our collaboration and we eventually decided to create the Athletes4Others club.”

By joining forces on Lynbrook’s campus, Athletes4Others aims to expand their impact to other Sunnyvale schools and local YMCAs. The officers believe that with a more organized operating system and interacting closely with the Lynbrook community the organizations’ purposes will be sustained long-term. 

“I was excited to hear that Athletes4Others became an official club on campus,” junior and Athletes4Others member Jeffrey Gao said. “I’m looking forward to learning about how to interact with other people from various backgrounds through this club.”

Currently, the officers are conducting a coach-screening process to evaluate which members have the highest potential to be coaches and demonstrate the ability to be role models in athletic skill, teamwork, leadership and work ethic. Members who are not selected to coach will still be able to help out with the behind-the-scenes planning of camps and clinics. 

“Coaches watch students’ growth, not only in their sports but also in their personalities,” senior and Athletes4Others President Knotts said. “That is what makes the coaching experience memorable and unique. Atheles4Others is the only service club at school which gives athletes amazing opportunities to become coaches.”

Viking Table Tennis

Viking Table Tennis is an interest club that hopes to promote a sense of community through a shared passion for table tennis. The creation of this club stemmed from the freshman team of officers’ shared common goal of creating a space for all Lynbrook students to hangout together and bond over games of table tennis. The club was officially approved by the Legislative Council this February, and since their first weekly lunch meeting on Tuesday, February 28, the club has steadily grown in popularity throughout campus.

“I want Viking Table Tennis to be the one club where everyone can play regardless of what skill set they may have,” freshman and Viking Table Tennis President Yuvraj Gill said.

  Viking Table Tennis is proud to be one of the few clubs on campus that works with special education students on campus, and welcomes students across all grades to join and play with their friends in the fieldhouse. The club prides itself on its ability to form new friendships and bonds between all its members regardless of grade level. In addition to the club’s weekly meetings, Viking Table Tennis plans on hosting a tournament in April open to all students on campus.

“My personal favorite thing about Viking Table Tennis is seeing everyone come together,” Gill said. “You see lots of people from different friend groups, just different groups of people. They’re coming in and playing with either random strangers or just their own friends, and everyone’s having a good time.” 

Korean Club

Expanding the horizons of cultural representation on campus, Korean Club is an interest club that aims to help students gain a greater appreciation for Korean culture. After the original club’s disbandment in June 2022, the new officer team came together to revive the club and cultivate a community of students with a shared passion for Korean culture.

 “My favorite thing about the Korean Club is that it is a place where I can actually share what I know about Korea,” junior and Korean Club President Richard Lim said. “Before this knowledge was just one part of my previous life, but now I can embrace it again, so I am very glad.”

The club plans to meet weekly to cover topics within Korean heritage and social issues, through more engaging activities than in past years. Some of these will include singing karaoke; practicing Gimjang, the preservation and preparation of the popular Korean dish Kimchi; and wearing Hanbok, a type of traditional Korean clothing.

The Korean Club is also unique in that it has done project collaborations with Lynbrook’s K-pop dance group, Lynbrook Ravens. The club hopes to continue collaborating with the Ravens in the upcoming school year.

“I hope our club can be more of a hangout for students, with activities where we can interact more with the members,” sophomore and Korean Club treasurer Jack Dang said.

Go club

Go Club is an interest club made for all students to learn and practice their skills in the game of Go. Go is a Chinese strategy game with a 19×19 board and 361 open squares. Players use black and white stones to form their own territories by surrounding empty areas of the board. The player who gains more territories than their opponent wins the game. 

Go Club looks forward to providing a welcoming environment that unites any individuals with passion for Go, as the club officers have similarly built strong friendship among themselves through their shared interest in Go. Collaborating with Cupertino and Monta Vista Go clubs, the club plans to host Go tournaments. 

“The first step we want to take as a club is to spread Go to a larger audience and bring all Go players at Lynbrook together by hosting club events and collaborating with other similar clubs,” sophomore and Go Club president Harold Wang said. “We also want to offer an opportunity for people who don’t know about Go to explore their new liking.”

The officers believe that Go Club will contribute to the school community by allowing students to stretch their patience and creative thinking. Compared to chess, Go is considered to give more freedom to players because it has few rules and offers more choices for the next move. Due to its big board, Go also involves creation and calculation. 

“After playing Go, I became more patient and capable of in-depth thinking, and I also gained a new perspective on life,” sophomore and Go Club Vice President Zachary Pan said. “However, when I started to play Go, I learned to think from different perspectives and have patience.”

Go Club will meet with its members every Thursday during lunch. The club will channel most of its effort in serving as a place which encourages students to find fun in playing Go, including those with no prior experience. 

Rubik’s Cube Club

Rubik’s Cube Club was created with the officers’ common goal of fostering Lynbrook students’ quick and critical thinking in a non-academic way. Although there was a group of students who already gathered together with a shared interest in Rubik’s Cube, the group was not capitalizing given resources, and the new officer team believed that they could accomplish more. Officially approved by the legislative council in April, Rubik’s Cube Club strives to provide an encouraging atmosphere for all cubers around campus so that they can collaboratively improve their problem solving skills.

“There are nationwide competitions for solving the Rubik’s Cube,” junior and Rubik’s Cube Club vice president Saketh Penumudy said. “The Rubik’s Cube Club is unique when compared to other similar clubs because it serves as both a competition and interest club.”

The club will be holding events, including district-wide Rubik’s Cube competitions with Rubik’s Cube clubs in other FUHSD schools. Since all of the officers of Lynbrook Rubik’s Cube Club were officers of Miller Middle School’s Rubik’s Cube Club, they are planning to reach out to the Miller community to recruit and mentor new members.

As the club will promote individuals’ passion for Rubik’s Cube through interactive club activities, the officer team believes that Rubik’s Cube Club can attract both cubers and non-cubers and eventually serve a larger group of students in the future. 

“The Rubik’s Cube is the best selling toy in the word,” junior and Rubik’s Cube Club vice president Alex Lee said. “Students should join Rubik’s Cube Club because playing with Rubik’s cubes can not only release their stress but also improve their cognitive abilities.”

Bringing forth meaningful sports opportunities and cultural awareness, five new clubs have been welcomed on campus: Athletes4others, Viking Table Tennis, Korean Club, Go Club and Rubik’s Cube Club. Recently passed by the Legislative Council from January through March, these new clubs focus on unique student passions. 

“We’re very excited to see how each of these clubs serves our campus, and we wish them all the best as well as any clubs that may be passed or proposed in the future,” senior and ASB Vice President Allison Hsu said.