Senior takes on new regional leadership role

Senior Jessy Liu

When Senior Jessy Liu signed up for Interact Club back in 2013 as a freshman, she didn’t envision the impact it would have on her.

When she first stepped foot on campus, Liu admits that she grossly miscalculated the amount of effort and time that the high school’s workload would take. Since the difference between middle school and high school was overwhelming, Liu began to lose motivation.

“I lost my interest in my activities and stopped trying my best in school,” Liu said. “I was just losing everything in general.”

Just as her hopes began to diminish, however, Liu was asked to join Interact, a club that she initially thought was just a service and volunteering club. As Liu continued to attend meetings, she began to find good friends in Interact, friends who were able to support her through her tough times and reassure her that she would regain the confidence and motivation she needed to succeed.

“The officers at the time woke me up,” Liu said. “They pulled me out of my ditch, took me to events and taught me how to manage stress. Without the Interact officers teaching me how to be the best version of me I could be, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.”

The officers who mentored her included 2015 alumni Josh Pi, Sherrilyn Ling, Jane Park and Lauren Louie, and 2016 alumni Ariel Liu, Felicia Hung and Helen Chen.

Three years following Liu’s introduction to Interact, she has not only become the co-president of the club with senior Mitali Shanbhag, but is also on the local Interact board as an outreach coordinator.

Each school with an Interact Club is grouped into areas that collectively make up a district. District 5170 is comprised of 13 areas with 95 schools. This division system is based on location and proximity of schools and makes it more convenient for local clubs to organize events together.

As a member of the district council, Liu acts as the liaison between the Interact Club at the school and District A11’s area director, Lily Solomon, planning activities and reporting the club’s progress.

“Being able to immerse myself in a group of passionate, driven and genuine leaders both in and out of school really set a new precedent for my personal standards,” Liu said. “At the same time, it required a lot more communication skills, as I now had to organize everything from pearl milk tea fundraisers to events for more than 4,000 people and be responsible for something that is larger than just myself.”

Now that she has taken on a larger role as an Interact member and gone beyond just the club at the school, Liu wants all of the school’s 80 or so Interact members to feel the same encouragement that she did three years ago.

“I am so dedicated to making my own officer team feel welcomed and involved,” Liu said. “I want to show them all the things that they can accomplish through Interact.”