You know them for their rally performances and most recently, their Food Truck Mania performances. They have been stealing the “stage,” mostly the lower gym floor, for the past two years, with groovy medleys to various K-pop songs, from “Ko Ko Bop” by EXO to “Oh My!” by Seventeen.
All of a sudden, the COVID-19 pandemic started to upheave the world, just 20 days after their Winter Rally performance.
For the 19-20 school year, that meant no performances during AC’s Night Out, Multicultural week (which was supposed to happen during mid to late March 2020), and the Legacy Rally. For this year, performances were completely nonexistent with the move to 5-day distance/hybrid learning. Just like the rest of the clubs on campus, Korean Cultural Club (KCC) had to adapt in order to maintain student and staff safety. This meant no performances or rehearsals. However, they have adjusted a little bit differently compared to most clubs and organizations.
Being one of few cultural clubs on campus, the officers have decided to revert the club to its original purpose - talking about Korean culture. With everyone being in Zoom calls for months now, it was the perfect opportunity to finally discuss multiple cultural aspects such as school life, street fashion, and even spooky superstitions.
Want to see what a typical meeting looks like for KCC in the time of COVID? Let’s dive right in!
Something new that was introduced this year is a monthly poll open to all members. The results of these polls determine the topic of focus for the next meeting, whether it’s informational or a game day. After confirming the results, the officers put together a presentation about the topic, unless there is a change of plans like what happened in the January and November meetings. The topics of Korean beauty standards and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving Day) have been introduced to the members. Other potential topics include school life, artwork, and the history of Korea. It’s more than just the Hallyu wave.
With new interactive activities embedded in slides like this, it’s a new way for the officers and members to bond, since the old way of dance practices has been whisked away from them. They may have only had one opportunity to dance (from their homes, of course) via a tutorial on the choreography for girl group Blackpink’s first 2020 single, “How You Like That,” but these connections beyond dance still prevail.
I asked the 5-member officer board about their thoughts on this whole rollercoaster for the club. This included the drastic change in duties of several officer positions. Gabrielle Andaya’s role as treasurer has been significantly affected by the onset of COVID and distance learning.
“In the past years I've been a member of KCC, the officers' primary jobs were to arrange performances and reach out to potential club members. Their titles like 'secretary' and 'treasurer' didn't play a big role in what they actually did for the club. To be completely honest, all I anticipated to do was teach a few choreographies and send out some reminders for meetings. The transition to distance learning changed that drastically. As treasurer, I'm expected to keep track of the past years' funds and inventory of goods that were sold. Our new club activities also require a lot more work than I thought. Every month, we come up with new ideas, send out a poll, and try to make an interactive and fun activity for everyone. Though sometimes it can get tiring and almost feel like another school assignment, I still enjoy planning each meeting with the other officers over texts and Zoom meetings.”
Erin Mangapot’s plans as a new officer have also been remarkably altered thanks to COVID, saying, “The pandemic hit me at the most unforgiving time, especially as a new officer who wanted to put forth my best and most polished work for this club. As the same goes for many other students right now, the endless quarantine has hindered my productivity and motivation, as well as make communications with the other officers difficult, and creating engaging club activities more challenging. I've had to adapt to quarantine-friendly activities, which includes brainstorming whole new plans as an officer.”
Andaya also reminisces on the time when after-school dance practices were still a thing, and how they improved bonds between members compared to lunch practices.
“I miss the long after-school practices we had when preparing for performances. Lunch practices are usually rushed since we try to cram in as much as possible, but after-school practices let the members hang out and become closer with each other. Perhaps a better way to put it is that I miss interacting with all the members and learning more about them during practices. It really felt like we became a family during those times.”
Kyla Mendoza, the club’s current president, has also felt nostalgic about the inclusiveness that came with dance practices. This is what she wanted to say about the whole manner:
“The most enjoyable part of the performances for me was giving our members a chance to momentarily live out their K-pop idol fantasies. As a fan of all these musical groups and artists, some of us develop a desire to take the stage, and preparing performances together is probably the closest thing we’ll get before stepping into the real world and letting go of those daydreams. We never cut people from dances based on their skill and we accepted everyone who wanted to participate from die-hard fans to casual listeners because Korean Cultural Club is meant to share the spotlight. I miss giving our members a regular place to freely express themselves, so I hope that’s something the future KCC can provide.”
Frances Melindo, vice president, recalls the teamwork and dedication the members have put in their chosen dances back in the day during the process of a performance, elaborating on this:
“The one thing that I long for when we prepare for a performance is the teamwork we have together as a club. I am fascinated by everyone’s dedication to the dances they signed up for; it makes me feel like a proud parent watching their child grow up, haha. I love bringing the best out of the members by performing songs that they love, so that’s why I tend to put a lot of my time with the other officers making our performance better than the previous. I get immensely satisfied seeing everyone happy with its outcome because of their sheer determination to bring shine to our performance!”
Aside from the officers, I asked general members not about the club during the pandemic, but how it enhanced their overall school experience. Here is what a few of them had to say.
“Because I’m naturally a very shy person, KCC has made me more comfortable with expressing myself at school and caring less about what my peers think of me. And I feel like for such a long time, Kpop was viewed as “weird” and “annoying”, but being in this club has made me so much happier as I found others who shared a love for this music.” - Erian Pangilinan
“KCC has enhanced my overall experience by building my confidence and self love. Through its many performances I felt like I truly found a niche of mine and honestly I fit in just perfectly. Regardless of people’s views, I didn’t care! I found a place that was so supportive and I’ve managed to pave a way for other males to join KCC! So with that, I was greatly impacted thanks to the experience. It helped me build my character and who I am today, that’s what really enhanced it.” - Raymond Calimbas (aka the first male performer of KCC!)
“In my opinion how KCC enhanced my experience at school, it’s like additional information that I don’t really need but it’s one of those things where it’s like ‘oh that’s pretty cool to learn about.’” - Nick Cuenca
“KCC provided a space and community for a shared appreciation of Korean culture. It also allowed me to make new friendships and bond over common interests.” - Clarissa Pagal
I was also able to get in touch with former KCC members who were from the class of 2020. They shared their thoughts about what they would want to accomplish in the club if the COVID-19 pandemic never happened.
Catherine Ortiz replied with having more opportunities to learn new dances and getting to know the members more between March and June, saying, “I think if COVID never happened I would like to keep learning new dances with the members, getting to know them more, and get to perform along with them :)”
Melissa Robinson, president of the club during the 2019-20 school year, elaborates on this:
“I think the biggest thing I always wanted for you guys was to just have y’all have a place where you feel like you belong, a place where you can be yourself no matter what, and I think COVID took that away from all of us... I wish I had the time to get to know you all better, but I’m really grateful for what we were able to do in such a short amount of time. On a smaller scale, like with just the other officers, I really wanted to help acclimate them to their new duties for when I would be gone, and help them to hopefully be able to get a feel for what it would be like, but I know I could have never been able to prepare them for this. With all this being said, I think we all did our best with what we could do at the time, so I don’t really have any big regrets or anything.”
Kirsten Napiza expressed wanting to help improve the club, saying, “If COVID never happened I would fully invest in the club. Like I’d actually offer help if needed etc. to help grow the club more.”
When I asked the officers what they would remember from the experience of Zoom-only meetings, Melindo had this to say:
“One thing that will most likely be remembered for many more years to come from our Zoom Meetings for KCC is just how much the Korean culture has so much to offer. As we set up our presentations focusing on many aspects, I learned so many things that I did not know of as an officer myself. I hope the members also learn a thing or two about the culture because I understand that many of the members had initially signed up because of k-pop and k-dramas. So while integrating that alongside the traditions and beliefs they have, the officers and I can only hope that all the members genuinely enjoy what we showcase them for every meeting we hold since we cannot dance as much anymore. I don't believe that we've ever indulged much with South Korea's other aspects as we do now, so I wish for future officers to hold this custom of not just talking about Korean entertainment but of a feature. Why else are we called the Korean Culture Club haha? I'm so proud of everyone in this club for being such diligent members and coming to our meetings, and they may not know this, but I appreciate every member for making these tough days a little brighter.”
Kara Hernandez, the club’s secretary, made this final remark on what she’ll remember from (co) hosting Zoom-only meetings:
“Something that I’d cherish for years from holding Zoom-only meetings would be the aspects we’ve learned about Korean culture. Previous years, we focused more on performances and didn’t really have the opportunity to further our knowledge on the culture itself, as practicing and preparing for such events were time consuming. Now the pandemic prevents our club from participating in physical, outdoor activities together, allowing us to research and focus more on Korea’s history, traditions, social standards, authentic cuisines, art, etc!!”
Whether someone describes it as home, inclusiveness, comfort, and more, you can tell that it’s been a rewarding experience to be a part of this club, member or officer.
To those who are existing, former, or prospective members of KCC, thank you for taking the time to make a part of your high school experience more memorable.
Photos provided by Kara Hernandez, Kyla Mendoza, and Raymond Calimbas.
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