Students chartered a number of new culture clubs this fall, putting a spotlight on the importance of affinity groups to the Gunn community. The new affinity clubs are the Muslim Student Association, South Asian Culture Club, Southeast Asian Student Association, Turkish Club and Vietnamese Culture Club. Previously created, ongoing affinity clubs are the Black Student Union, Chinese Culture Club, French Club, 412 Christian Club, German Club, Indian Diversity Club, Japan Culture Club, Korean Club and Spanish Club. 

Freshman Inaaya Ahmed’s experiences outside of Palo Alto spurred her to found the South Asian Culture Club. “I’m (from) Minnesota, and as you can imagine, the diversity wasn’t very high,” she said. “I moved to California hoping that I would meet a lot of similar South Asian kids like me, but I haven’t met as many as I was hoping for.”

As a result, Ahmed wanted to cultivate a place of belonging for South Asian students. “By starting this club, I’m hoping to make a community where all the South Asian kids can be together and share our culture,” she said.

Sophomore Sylvie Nguyen, Vietnamese Culture Club president and reporter for The Oracle, and sophomore Chilton Chau, Vietnamese Culture Club vice president, formed the Vietnamese Culture Club for similar reasons. “I (wanted) to spread more awareness of Vietnamese culture, and share and preserve it,” Nguyen said. “I’m trying to create an empowering and inclusive community that wants to learn about Vietnamese culture and have fun with it.”

Chau added that VCC isn’t exclusively for Vietnamese people but for anyone interested in learning about Vietnamese culture. “VCC (is for) all different types of races, ethnicities and identities,” he said. “I want (everyone) to feel comfortable at our club.”

Welcoming students to the new Southeast Asian Culture Club, junior An Chanthery explained the importance of cultural clubs. “It’s important for the Gunn student body to have access to (culture clubs) because we are spreading awareness and educating students about different cultures,” she said. “It’s nice to see people interested in our culture.”