This school year, the Spanish and Azteca clubs at Newton High School made the decision to combine into one club. With the formerly two separate clubs having so many similarities and the same goals, it made sense for the two to combine. While it is just the beginning for this new club, many are optimistic for its future.

With the retirement of art teacher Patrice Olais, the Azteca club was in need of a new sponsor. Olais had led the Azteca club for many years with her husband Raymond Olais, also a former art teacher at NHS. Current art teacher Eden Quispe decided that she would take over and be the new sponsor for the club.

“We combined the clubs because Mrs. Olais retired. She and her husband led Azteca for many years and Mrs. Quispe decided to take it over and we decided that we did a lot of the same things so we combined,” NHS Spanish teacher and club sponsor Cheryl Loeffler said.

The clubs decided to combine this year for numerous reasons. For one, the clubs felt like they had the same missions and goals for what they wanted to accomplish within the student body and school community. Both clubs are also very involved with the Latinx community and traditions, which is another reason the clubs thought to combine.

“Since there was a lot of overlap between students in both clubs and we did many of the same activities, we said, “let’s try combining.” The Spanish club sponsors were very open to pouring even more Latinx culture into the Spanish club and continuing all the traditions that Azteca developed over the years,” club sponsor and art teacher Eden Quispe said.

While there has only been one meeting so far, the sponsors have noted that the club does not feel too different from years past. However, this year the sponsors have decided that they really want the senior members of the club to be in the leadership positions.

“I feel like the combined clubs don’t feel too different from just Azteca in the past at this point. But we will see what the leaders, the senior class, come up with,” Quispe said

There are already many positives the club sponsors have noticed in combining the clubs after their first meeting. The sponsors noted that many of the club’s participants were already in both Spanish and Azteca clubs in years past. 

“The positives are, the club is bigger and most of the people were in both clubs already. We are hoping that we can combine all of their ideas,” Loeffler said.

While the club has not been able to do much so far, as the school year just started, they are excited for this club to move forward. Both sponsors hope that the clubs will continue to stay combined and positively work together for many years to come.

“We will probably combine again next year because the missions are the same,” Loeffler said.