Civic Club Highlight - Lake Washington

The fifth club we will be keeping up with is Lake Washington High School Civics Club!

Firstly, the LWHS civics club meets every Tuesday morning. The club is structured to discuss a new topic every month. In the first meeting of the month, club members take a look at the issue through a global lens, discussing how the issue impacts a multitude of communities across the world. In the second meeting, they shift gears to a local perspective, and discuss how the issue specifically affects those of us in the Greater Seattle Area. These discussions typically focus on how they may be able to improve the problem, both generally, and personally. The third meeting of the month is a meeting where the club deliberates on possible topics that they want to do in the future, and what members like or want to change about the club. Finally, the last meeting of the month is started by a discussion about a current event, followed by an activity related to direct engagement with the community and volunteering.

The latest meeting topic that LWHS civics club covered was waste and deforestation. It is important for those wishing to engage in civics to educate themselves on deforestation because it has a crucial impact on every life. Deforestation is a huge environmental issue in the US that aggravates the effects of climate change, causes desertification and soil erosion, results in fewer crops and an increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and more (pachamama.org). Waste is also a relevant environmental topic to discuss, as the excess of waste has proven to be catastrophic. Piling up landfills causes pollution in our local area that detrimentally affects the local stream health. Only by continually striving to educate and better understand environmental issues, such as waste and deforestation, can we begin to make strides to improve the quality and health of our natural ecosystems.

This topic was incorporated as a primary topic for the club meetings last month, and spanned over four club meetings, one per week. The main method of incorporating this topic in LWHS civics club meetings has been through discussion. Discussion allows members to dive deeper into the topic, and begin to understand a topic that may be confusing to them. Lake Washington High School civics club finds that it is very vital that the topic be approached with two lenses — local and global — because multiple perspectives allow members to have a better understanding of the topic.

Overall, Lake Washington High School civics club’s meetings have been going very smoothly. As stated by the president of the LWHS civics club, Sunny Kulkarni, “our hopes for the future are to gain more members and keep having meaningful discussion.”

Club Instagram: @lwhs.civicengagement

Written by Megan Yi