Every other Thursday, Zavier Richardson ‘24 walks into Howell 45, hoping that it will be the day that the lesson they planned will have a large impact. And every other Thursday, without fail, they walk in to find the Harkness table nearly empty. This experience is shared among most Affinity/Ally club leaders at the Bryn Mawr School. 

As a leader of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), Richardson has encountered numerous limitations as to what is possible for clubs with low attendance rates. For GSA, this lack of attendance not only impedes the possibility of community projects, but also reduces the possibility of crucial conversations. According to Richardson, there is a need for more discussion of intersectionality in GSA; they shared a dilemma that they often face as a leader: “I remember when I was a freshman I was just starting to wrap my head around the idea of everything that intersectionality meant. I didn’t know how to go that deep at that point. I feel like a lot of the people who could give a more varied perspective on intersectionality would just be more upperclassmen or people who have talked about or thought about being queer for longer.” Xe also discussed not knowing how to proceed with facilitating these conversations with people who have not thought about intersectionality with their own identities. Their experience demonstrates not only the need for more community involvement in affinity groups, but also more involvement that better reflects the demographics of the Upper School as a whole–there is an extreme lack of participation from upperclassmen. 

Asian Student Union (ASU) leaders shared a similar concern. Emily Yang ‘24 expressed her thoughts on this topic as a leader of an affinity club experiencing record-high attendance this year. She noted that most ASU meetings are mainly attended by freshmen, and shared how that can be a limitation, especially when considering who will lead ASU next year. She also recognized a lack of identity-based conversation in comparison to what she saw in ASU during her freshman year, and the difficulties that arise in a space filled with a large—but overwhelmingly younger—population, due to the younger students being so new to the Upper School Affinity spaces. She talked about how it was hard for people to speak up in the club, saying “In Asian culture in general, we tend to group up because, sometimes, it’s hard, really for any minority, to raise your voice. I feel like the stigma around Asian people being quiet is so prevalent, especially at Bryn Mawr, that I feel like I just wish it wouldn’t be like that at ASU.”  In sharing this experience, Yang addresses another issue that is not as common among Bryn Mawr’s Affinity/Ally clubs—large attendance hindering some conversations because of how it limits the feeling of a more “tight-knit” connection between members. 

Laila Gheis ‘25, leader of Arab American Perspectives (AAP), shared how difficult a lack of regular members can be. She stated that “it’s hard to achieve anything on my own if I don’t have peers to collaborate with.” Gheis discussed how the lack of people to support or enjoy the benefits of a community-wide project, makes the idea of a project almost impossible. Other affinity club leaders also reflected on how many ideas they simply had to abandon because of a lack of members, sharing how upsetting it is to let go of an idea they think could be incredibly beneficial to the school community. 

In each interview, it was evident that club attendance is crucial for any affinity group. After all, the original purpose of establishing Affinity/Ally clubs at Bryn Mawr is to demonstrate to the student body that there are numerous places where they can feel seen and comfortable in their identity. But for many clubs, the lack of participation restricts what they can do for the school, and how truly seen someone can feel within their club. Richardson discussed that in their time leading GSA, it has been difficult to grapple with how few people in the school community are willing to dedicate time to talk about LGBTQIA+ issues. GSA’s regular attendance is about nine percent of the total number of people on its sign-up list. For a leader, simply recognizing those numbers can cause confidence in their club to plummet. 

In all of the interviews,  the leaders acknowledged  that it is understandable that Affinity/Ally spaces are not for everyone, and that it is a difficult act to address an individual’s identity in such a public way. The affinity club leaders shared that the school community needs to understand how valuable and powerful their perspectives are in these spaces. Laila Gheis shared specifically how she wants the school community to know that “[AAP] is open to listeners as well as people who have an affinity for the club, and that it doesn’t really matter how much you identify with being Arab American, or how much, genetically, you are Arab American—it’s important to come especially in times like this where there are humanitarian crises happening across the world—it’s so important to be there for your friends that are Arab American that are taking so much pressure under their belts of being advocates for what’s happening.” Zavier Richardson expressed similar opinions about what they hope for attendance. They stated that they want people to understand that regardless of how much they identify with being LGBTQ+, or how deeply the identity affects them in their day-to-day life, their perspective is needed. They stressed that in the same way a generally low attendance rate decreases what is possible for a club, it is also not ideal for a club to become homogenous in the identities that are represented. 

Variety in opinion, experience, and thought is crucial in a club striving to make a genuine difference in the daily lives of those belonging to marginalized identities. Each of the club leaders interviewed stated how important it is to them that every person in the school community has a place to feel seen, and how they hope their club can be that place for someone. 

Clubs:

Arab American Perspectives, Led by Laila Gheis: 

• Every Green Tuesday, during 5th period (2:50-3:30) in the Ceramics Studio

Asian Student Union, Led by Emily Yang, Sarah Chen, and Cara Chow:

• Every Thursday (Green & Gold), during lunch (12:40-1:30) in Hardy 29

Gender and Sexuality Alliance, Led by Zavier Richardson, Sascha Hurwitz, and Virginia Whalen: 

• Every Green Thursday, during lunch (12:40-1:30) in Howell 45