The Search For Merch

Within the walkways of New Roads School, you have likely spotted them – whether it’s BSU’s emerald green hoodies, The Feministas’ hot pink tee shirts, or GSU’s cozy crewnecks, they are the letterman’s jackets of New Roads School.

New Roads School is well-known for its diverse culture and inclusivity in all groups throughout campus. A closer examination reveals that the formation of these groups goes beyond what is initially perceived.

These affinity groups worked hard to establish themselves, whether that be participating in fundraisers, presentations in the town hall to reach students on campus, obtaining merchandise for their affinity groups, deciding what days to meet, designing their merchandise for their affinity group, or choosing the representatives for their affinity group, many more obstacles go into creating a well-established affinity group. These pieces of merchandise are the badge of honor of New Roads School. They allow students who are a part of these various affinity groups to be able to represent their culture to the rest of those on campus.

To fully understand each affinity group’s journey to obtain merchandise, it is essential to know how a few of them began, returning to the spring of 2023. At that time, if anyone looked around the campus, it became almost impossible to ignore that certain affinity groups were missing their own merchandise. One such group, The Asian Student Union, yearned for the same eye-catching swag. Other groups were sporting, but faced many unexpected obstacles.

“I brought up the idea of ASU merch in the second semester of school. It was approved, along with the graphic designs. There was no follow-up for the rest of the year. During that time, ASU was out of the loop in terms of merchandise,” says current President of ASU, Makaela Asher.

Asher’s confusion raised several good questions, questions that other affinity groups had to answer for themselves. Was there a budget for affinity group merch? If so, what was the budget? How were some affinity groups able to obtain their merch, while others had not yet enjoyed the same opportunity? Why was this process different for each affinity group? These were all questions that lingered in Asher’s mind, as well as in the minds of others who encountered similar obstacles.

(Image design courtesy of Makaela Asher for The Jaguardian)

ASU’s original logo design was approved in the spring semester of 2023.

Sara Hammerman, current faculty advisor of the Jewish Student Union, shared her insight on the process of obtaining merchandise for the affinity group. “I wasn’t sure how the program was structured. So I just looked around and saw what the other groups were getting and tried to pursue that,” Hammerman said. Hammerman’s situation differed from Asher’s as the advisor successfully achieved her primary goal of obtaining merchandise for JSU, something Asher could not accomplish on her own.

In contrast to JSU’s experience, the journey of Latinos Unidos, as described by former faculty advisor Carmen Anders, was “fairly straightforward.” After discussing the idea of sweatshirts for Latinos Unidos with Kenya, I collaborated with Dawn Fairchild on the design and production of the sweatshirt. Within two months, Latinos Unidos had their sweatshirts,” Anders said.

Asher remained in the same spot as she had been previously. With another faculty advisor having been able to obtain merchandise for her affinity group, Asher was left with no guidance on what steps she should take next. One possible explanation is that ASU made their request in mid-April, which may have been considered too late in the academic year. However, the fundamental question remained: If these circumstances had not been a limiting factor, would ASU have successfully obtained their own merchandise?

High School Director Daniela Pennise, in an effort to provide guidance, could only relay the same information to ASU communicated the previous year. With no direction, ASU proactively took matters into their own hands by organizing a bake sale scheduled for November 29th, with their primary goal of raising sufficient funds to finally acquire merchandise for their affinity group.

Whatever the case may be, Acting Head of School Ryan Hawley recently approached ASU faculty advisor Robert Bujosa to discuss obtaining ASU merchandise for their affinity group. He asked Bujosa for the amount of active ASU members and asked for Bujosa to send the finalized roster. ASU has high hopes for receiving their crewnecks in 2024 and will finally be able to sport their swag.