Isabella Pivirotto is a busy young woman.
The 17-year-old has never shied away from a full schedule and didn’t hesitate to add resurrecting the club culture in Penn Hills High School to her to-do list.
“My freshman year was kind of that weird year where people were coming back to school from covid,” Pivirotto said. “Nobody was really involved in anything.”
Despite students signing up to participate in a couple clubs, Pivirotto said none of them really took off during the year. With this being her senior year, she decided to do something about the lack of club offerings at the high school.
“At the beginning of the school year, I wanted to set some stuff up to tell people, ‘We have clubs; you’re able to do these,’ ” she said. “Sports and other stuff — sometimes there’s too much of a commitment. I feel like clubs are right in that middle area where people can be involved but not have it take up their whole life.”
Bernard Taylor, the high school’s principal, presented Pivirotto with the district’s Pride and Promise student award on Nov. 26. During his speech, he described Pivirotto as a “superstar in every sense of the word.”
“She’s a thinker, she’s a contributor, and she wants what’s best not only for herself but for her class,” Taylor said.
Taylor said Pivirotto approached him at the beginning of the school year to help her arrange a way to reinvigorate the club programs in the school.
Pivirotto spoke individually with each club adviser and was able to have clubs and their representative host a recruitment fair in the fall.
Members of the art club, garden club, games club, architecture club, the Black Student Union, world language club and more were able to set up tables during lunch times and speak with interested students. Pivirotto said some tables featured games for students, others had decorations, and all tables had a sign-up sheet.
Since then, Pivirotto said she has received some new club request sheets. Taylor said the administration will be utilizing Pivirotto’s work and suggestions to see how quickly and efficiently the district can offer more club opportunities to students.
Pivirotto said the next step in the club resurgence will be developing a schedule that allows students to participate in clubs. Before covid, the school offered an extra period that offered students a longer homeroom where they could get work done for teachers, get tutoring or go to club meetings. The school has since eliminated that time, but requesting that students meet after school has presented some challenges.
“I’ve been trying to get new clubs going, but it’s been hard because a lot of people sign up and are interested, but people can’t stay after school without transportation,” she said.
She has been working with Taylor to possibly have the school run on a pep rally schedule some days of the week. Each class lasts five minutes less and leaves about a half-hour of free period at the end of the day.
“Instead of a pep rally, that would be our club time,” Pivirotto said.
Leadership has always come naturally to Pivirotto. She is the acting president of the art club, garden club and the captain of the school’s dance, musical dance, majorette and tennis teams.
“When I was in eighth grade, I joined marching band,” Pivirotto said. “I really looked up to all of the seniors. And as I went into freshman and sophomore year, I looked up to them and I wanted people to look up to me in the same way.”
Pivirotto said she likes to help people and make them feel comfortable enough to ask for help without fear of judgment. Through her passions, she strives to help people to love learning and follow their interests.
Pivirotto also is a member of the show choir, the Golden Triangles and the school’s Big Brother Big Sister program. During the school day, Pivirotto serves as a lab assistant for her AP chemistry class. During her free periods, she helps her art teacher in the classroom.
“I fill my planner out every weekend for the following week, and, when I don’t have a full schedule, I just don’t even know what to do with myself,” Pivirotto said.
She is looking forward to starting art school in the fall at the University of Pittsburgh. She plans to complete her bachelor’s degree in studio art and get a master’s in teaching to follow in the footsteps of her art teacher.