History of HMSA Key Club

Although we are the 4th newest club in the Division (only behind Da Vinci Science, Santa Monica & Saint Monica), the history of HMSA Key Club tells quite something.

​

Located in the small but bustling city of Hawthorne, HMSA (full name: Hawthorne Math & Science Academy) was opened for business in 2003, being the first and (still) only high school in the primarily elementary & middle school dominated Hawthorne School District. Fast forward 6 years: HMSA applied to be chartered by Key Club International, the oldest & most successful community service high school club. Fortunately for them, the charter was approved. On November 24, 2009, HMSA Key Club was born.

​

HMSA Key Club joined Division 19 North as the newest Pirate Penguins in that time. However, little was known about the impact that movement would come to have. Over recent years, HMSA has joined the likes of CAMS, Gardena and other schools in the division in seeing members become Members of the Year, serve on the DLT, and even run for (AND WIN) LTG. Over 5 members from HMSA Key Club have served on the DLT, including our own current President, Ramses Donis, when he served as Head Spirit Coordinator in 2017/18 and Katie Chow as Member Recognition Coordinator in 2016/17. One of our members has served in the past as D19N Lieutenant Governor: that was Hazel Cartagena in 2017/18!

​

HMSA has also seen members serve on different positions or retain their spots on their board. Our president Ramses actually served as Co-Vice President in 2018/19. One of our current Vice Presidents, Brian Cifuentes, was the Secretary in 2018/19. A little further back in time, Natalie Ulloa served as Webmaster in 2016/17 AND 2017/18, as did her successor, Sergio Morales in 2018/19 AND 2019/20! Mariam Ibraheem, our current News Editor, also served that spot in 2018/19 and still does today! This year sees one of the most diverse boards in a while as 3 out of 10 of our board members are from Class of 2022, and 6 of 10 board members are serving for the first time! In fact, there is at least 1 member on the board from each graduating class between 2020 & 2022!

​

As for this website, it all started back on July 10, 2013. On that day, the website you are viewing right now was published for the first time. After some upgrades, the final version of the website (for that time being) was published on October 11, 2013. It has since been forgotten and replaced by Weebly... that is, until almost 6 years later in May 2019, when a curious Sergio Morales took a peek at the Wix.com website and noticed that it had gone unused. Another contributor: a friend of his who had used Wix.com to design a website for an English project. Bringing up the idea to his President first, Sergio asked to refurbish the Wix.com website for use. The project was green-lit on May 20, 2019 and after the announcement was made on May 29, reconstruction of hmsakeyclub.wixsite.com/d19n had begun on May 30. With help from his President Ramses and Publicist Noelani Amante, the project was completed on July 30 and the website officially re-launched on August 2.

​

As a Division, D19N has done quite some stuff. Having won 2 Spirit Sticks at Fall Rally South in 2016 and 2017 showed to all of CNH just how spirited our Division can become. In 2017-18, our then-Division Tech Editor (now CNH Communications & Marketing Chair) Sophia Soriano earned D19N the award for Distinguished Website. Even our then-LTG Jared Keating was awarded Distinguished LTG at Key Club's International Convention following the 2018-2019 term, showing just how high our division can reach.

​

In 2019, HMSA Key Club celebrates 10 years in service, and as you can see, those 10 years have been quite remarkable. As we begin a new decade of service, we're just as excited as the 2009-10 board were to see what HMSA Key Club can do.