There is writing on the whiteboard. It is illegible, but the 12 people in the room stare at it with intent, somehow able to decipher the lines and circles. A girl writes a second set of lines on the board, no less illegible than the last. Somehow the people in the room are able to read it, even understand it. They are learning Korean.

Learning the Korean language is only one of the many things the members of K-Pop Club, a club dedicated to Korean Pop, do each Wednesday afternoon. The club, lead by four presidents, teaches about dance, types of food and other aspects of the Korean culture. The club has only been around since October and has gathered about 18 members. Each member has a different story to how the found the music and why they joined the club. For junior vice president Kassandra Hernandez, it was a band called Big Bang that sparked her interest.

“When I was in seventh grade I had to study with my teacher because I needed help with a test. There were these girls in the classroom who were watching music videos on the computer screen. It was Big Bang, who’s a huge group in South Korea, and I liked one of the guys…so I decided to look it up,” said Hernandez.

 Later, when club president senior Micaela Anderson approached Hernandez about beginning a club focused around the music genre, Hernandez was more than willing. Anderson, who had began gathering  the resources and people, only needed a few more signatures to start the club and a few more leaders. One other president besides Anderson had been found, senior Lindsay Concepcion, who Anderson had approached early in her search for leaders. Yet, Anderson still needed a few more.

“People wanted to start [the club] because Woodbury High School has one. I learned that [Shannon], who works in the print room, liked K-Pop. So people told me to start it, then I got all the signatures and that’s kind of how it started,” Anderson said.

Besides Hernandez and Anderson, another club president was on the list of people interested, junior Shengfue Yang. Yang, whose job entails leading the club when Anderson or Hernandez is away, has been listening to K-Pop since she was young.

“It started when I was little, I was exposed to [K-Pop] by my older siblings,” Yang explained. 

Yang was excited to start a club based around a music genre she likes, but she was also excited to share a culture with her peers. Yang, like the other presidents, knew how to speak Korean and was willing to teach others. For her the club was a place for people to hang out and to learn about the Korean culture.

“At Stillwater it’s not very diverse, so it just gives us a place for people to hang out and for people to learn about K-Pop,” Yang said.

The club meets every Wednesday from 2:20 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. in club advisor Shannon VerDuin’s room, and offers snacks, dancing, and games.

“K-pop [club] is a group where students of all backgrounds cover a variety of topics about one ultimate topic. From lyrics to celeb gossip and scandal, from the big screen to back-door restaurants, kpop club is a casual club for everything K-pop,” Concepcion said.