West Anchorage High School’s Kiwanis Educated Youth Club, also known as KEY Club, is a student-led organization that encourages leadership by serving others through community service. KEY club is the one of the largest and oldest service programs for students worldwide.

There are approximately 50 to 60 students in the club this year, which meets in room 12. Matthew Park, the president of KEY Club at West, describes the club. “KEY Club is basically a community service organization. It’s primarily student-driven, so it’s a lot of students who are leading the organization and we have student officers, committee chairs, and a lot of people who are just getting involved with the committee and are trying to make an impact.”

Park is a junior that joined KEY Club his sophomore year to expand his opportunities for leadership and to get engaged with people from around the school. Park says the most challenging part of being club president is communicating with others and trying to get everyone involved.

Jester Refuerzo, the vice president of the club, is a junior that joined his sophomore year. Refuerzo found out about KEY Club his sophomore year and thought it was really cool that there was a club that was focused all on volunteering and community service. In response on to how the club benefits others, Refuerzo says, “I think it benefits students specifically, because it gives them the opportunity to volunteer, and I think that giving back to the community is very valuable. I think that some people struggle to find opportunities and by joining KEY Club you are given chances to do just that.”

One thing Refuerzo would like to change in the club is to make the meetings more interactive. The most challenging thing for being vice president of KEY club for Refuerzo was finding volunteering opportunities and making contacts for those opportunities.

KEY Club’s sponsor, Adam Mackie, teaches World Literature Highly Gifted and Mythology. Mackie began sponsoring the club when Park approached him with the opportunity. Mackie likes that the club gives students the opportunity to volunteer and build some character development. “I think that it gives them opportunity to get out of themselves and do something in the community that’s going to improve and sort of be a project for the better good,” said Mackie. Mackie has been teaching at West for three years and has been a teacher for 10 years. Mackie became a teacher because he really believes in the pursuit of life-long learning.