As students walked into teacher Jeri Bordelon’s room, junior Claire Francis hands out flags from various countries with a smile on her face. Sophomore Madison Kirby grabs the British flag from Francis and waves it around as she makes her way to a seat.
With attendance of 18 students, the Pen Pal Society met Oct. 21 after school. The club will meet only four other times during the year because letters take a longer time to get to a location than an email. Junior Allison Bao describes what she hopes for the club in the future.
“I am hoping to communicate through pen and paper with students around the world and make new friendships through the process,” Bao said.
Bao started Pen Pal Society much like sophomore Ben Schnuck did with the Game Development Club his freshman year. Bao came up with the idea when she realized she liked getting packages in the mail.
Pen Pal Society will teach the skill of writing handwritten letters and will also allow students to become more culturally aware. Members will write letters to various countries like Hong Kong, Switzerland, Japan and Argentina.
“Honestly since I’m not the most tech savvy person, it would push me out of my comfort zone,” Kirby said. “Don’t get me wrong, no one loves cell phones more than I do, but no one gets to know each other anymore.”
Jeri Bordelon, teacher and sponsor of Pen Pal Society, loves the idea of students writing to others across the world.
“I wanted to sponsor the club because I thought it was a great opportunity to connect to other kids in other cultures.”
Kirby became interested in joining when Ms. Bordelon mentioned the club in class. Kirby has a dream of traveling to Australia as a foreign exchange student, much like Omal Ryspayev in his dream to travel to America. As a new member of Pen Pal Society, Kirby hopes to learn about other cultures over the course of writing and receiving letters.
“I’m look forward to meet people inside of the club and meet people all over,” Kirby said. “If I get to do the foreign exchange program next summer, I would go into it knowing a little about the country.”
Just like most of everyone in Pen Pal Society, Bao has never had a pen pal. As for the size of the club, Bao doesn’t care how big Pen Pal Society grows. Bao just encourages anyone to join.
“I hope [the kids] feel like they have friends in other places in the world when they get the letters,” Bao said.
