Izabela Petrosyan is a junior at Glendale High School, and she is the president of our new Table Tennis Club. She was born and raised in Armenia and moved to Glendale last year. Since she arrived in the United States, she has enjoyed meeting new people and exploring California. In her spare time, she loves reading, specifically Russian literature.
Izabela intended to start and expand the Table Tennis Club from our first semester, and it is now officially in its first year at GHS. Izabela and her vice president, Kristy Tarbinian, came up with the idea to start this club so that our students have the opportunity to get together and play together.
Before the Table Tennis Club became official, both Izabela and Kristy discussed table tennis in their AP physics class, mainly about how fun, entertaining, and enjoyable the activity is. Then the thought came to them: “Oh, this school doesn’t have this type of club, which would be nice to provide for the students here.” Later, they decided to open this club right before the first Club Rush.
Izabela’s main responsibility as president is to ensure that everyone is involved and has an equal opportunity to play a few games with their friends and other members of the community. Additionally, she is coming up with new fundraising ideas that will help collect more money for the club, so that she may purchase more equipment, particularly new tables, balls, nets, and paddles.
After collecting funds, the club members and their advisor, Mrs. Sukazian, were able to purchase a table, paddles, and a net. Instead of going over budget, they decided to find something more reasonably priced. Since this club is new, and they had no savings set up yet, funding was a little challenging for them at first.
Izabela plans to hold a fundraiser to support and raise money for the club. When any of her cabinet or club members come up with ideas for the fundraiser, Izabela is open to them, because it gives them a chance to have a discussion and find a solution to this problem.
Izabela wanted to start a club for students to come, relax, and enjoy themselves, rather than doing a particular activity that they may not have an interest in. She has had members join her club who had zero experience or any idea of how to play table tennis, but she’s always welcoming and humble to teach anyone the basics of the sport.
Students in the Table Tennis Club are pretty competitive. They usually play 1-on-1 or 2-on-2 games, which may be thrilling and chaotic at the same time. They all realize that their battles aren’t serious and are supposed to be friendly. The goal is to simply get along well with one another and create a joyful environment for everyone.
Izabela has considered making table tennis an official sport at GHS because technically it is a sport at the end of the day. Izabela and Kristy are planning to discuss this with both the physical education teachers and our principal, Dr. Lynette Ohanian. She is hoping that everything will go well and to see table tennis as a GHS sport one day.
If any of you Nitros are interested in joining the Table Tennis Club, the Remind code is @ghstable. Meetings are held every Monday in Mrs. Sukazian’s Room 4117. If you have any questions, feel free to email Mrs. Sukazian at [email protected]. Keep up the good work, Nitros!
