Selective clubs and their processes

Some clubs at American High require difficult auditions and tryouts to select their members

Staff Writer

With Club Rush recently coming to a close, many students are getting ready for their Science Olympiad or Mock Trial auditions. Officers of both clubs have given descriptive guidelines in order to help students succeed in their auditions and therefore be chosen for the club.

American High’s Legal Eagles of the Mock Trial team compete at a high level against other schools and due to the many students who audition and the limited spots on the team, require rigorous examinations to build a team with the most fit members. In Mock Trial, there are various different roles people can try out for. “The five different roles are attorney, witness, pretrial attorney, bailiff, and courtroom clerk, but we make all new members try out for attorney, witness, and pretrial attorney so we can properly assess their skill level,” Team Captain Ruhaan Joshi (11) explained.

Students are given material to use preceding their tryouts in order to simulate a normal competition. “We test candidates on the two major skills: preparation and improv. We need to test how well the candidate can work under immense pressure,” Joshi added. Of those who audition, more often than not there are many students who are highly qualified so the team captains try their best to make sure all high-level students have a spot on the team. “We don’t have a ‘quota,’ per se; it all depends on the quality of the candidates. We aren’t going to recruit someone just to reach a certain number, and we also won’t reject a candidate we really like just because we have too many people,” said Joshi.

When asked if academic records are taken into account, Joshi explains that their skill is the only deciding component for acceptance onto the team. “Don’t be deterred from trying out if you aren’t above average in studies” Joshi reassures.

However, Mock Trial is not the only team who holds their applicants to such high standards, Science Olympiad must employ a rigorous series of tryouts to rank students in order of capability to perform at events and use those rankings to make difficult cuts. “We mainly look at tryout scores for the more theory heavy events. We do paper tryout tests for the build ones where we interview people and they present their ideas,” says Science Olympiad President Ishan Patel (12).

Due to the high-level capabilities of many applicants, tie-breakers, or distinctions need to be made in order to fit the right amount of students. “In the very rare chance where we have two applicants that score very close or almost exact we do look at experience as sort of a tie-breaking factor,” said Patel. The relation between spots on the team and number of applicants is quite overwhelming which proves the extreme necessity for rigorous skill-based tryouts. “Science Olympiad has a total of two teams, so 30 people, but this year we are working to expand that to three teams, so a total of 45 students. And I would say an average of around 100 people tryout each year.” says Patel. However, those who put in the work to make the team receive unique experiences in return. “It’s a really rewarding experience, team members get really close with one another, and we often get to travel to cool places,” Patel enthusiastically said.