By Megan Sullivan
Staff Writer
Seniors Veronica Chen and Mackenzie Kawahara set the pace for a new year as they transform the People Attaining Complete Equality program into a club.
Former PACE class members Chen and Kawahara decided to start a club to serve in the program’s place after the class was terminated at Costa this year. The club is going to handle the same issues as the class, including drug abuse and addiction, Chen and Kawahara said.
“We thought PACE was too valuable of a class to lose, so we decided the best thing to do would be to start a club,” Kawahara said.
According to the organization’s website, PACE’s goal is to raise awareness for issues that the student body faces and show new perspectives on how to deal with them. The program is responsible for hosting various assemblies and events such as Red Ribbon Week and the Every 15 Minutes event.
“It is basically a student outreach program that tries to teach kids what drug abuse is and other problems students may face in high school,” Kawahara said. “We are just trying to educate them instead of imposing all these opinions.”
After the retirement of PACE advisor Dr. Rocky Wilson, the school attempted to merge PACE with Associated Student Body. ASB advisor Lisa Claypoole said that scheduling conflicts and miscommunications led PACE members to run the programs on their own. Chen and Kawahara are still in charge of contacting speakers and preparing assemblies for the school, while Vice Principal Deborah Hofreiter serves as the club’s advisor.
“I think it will be more challenging for us to find speakers and host assemblies because we no longer have Dr. Wilson, who had all the connections,” Chen said.
Starting over, Chen and Kawahara have discussed plans to improve various aspects of the program from previous years. Chen said that they are hoping to make PACE more inviting and friendly so more people will consider joining and getting involved.
“In PACE class we didn’t really work together, so this year we are trying to achieve more teamwork and unity,” Kawahara said. “We really want to get to know each other and not just have people there just to be there.”
As of now, the club consists of the co-presidents and a few other students who want to continue with the program. Chen and Kawahara said they struggle to find more people to be interested in the program, but they are hoping that it will gain popularity once they are organized and making contributions to the school.
“We hope that kids will still support this program,” Chen said. “We genuinely believe we can make an impact on Costa for the better.”
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