In a school as big as Klein High School, extracurricular activities are a daily part of most students’ lives. Many of those activities offer the opportunity for students to earn a letter jacket.  Donning that blue and gold leather jacket is one reason students join the organizations.

Of course a student can letter in sports, band, orchestra, choir, theatre and foreign languages, but students can also letter in other, smaller classes, and they may not even know it.

Cosmetology students can letter if they volunteer in all community service projects, enter a project in the district contest, complete 450 hours by their junior year, and participate in fundraisers, as well as having good attendance, maintaining a B average in the class throughout the year, and they meet all financial obligations, according to the teacher Jessica Boike.

“It’s really difficult to meet all the requirements,” junior Luci Horton said.  “But it would definitely be worth it when I finally get my jacket.”

Nicole Eaglin, sponsor of Business Professionals of America, said in order to receive a jacket, members should realize they need to put in a lot of effort.

“First, you have to be on time to every meeting, unless you have a good reason you can’t go,” she said. “You have to qualify and compete in competitions at the state level. It might seem easy, but it’s actually very difficult for students to balance everything in their lives on top of it.”

For the Good Sportsmanship League, students must be elected by their coach to join the GSL. After being elected into the group, students must prominently display the code of behavior, and participate in all community service projects, according to the sponsors.

However, some students believe that some clubs are harder to letter in than others.“It’s not fair that some extracurriculars don’t require as much work to letter in as others because you have people who can letter in just a year when others can’t letter in just a year when others can’t letter for two or three years,” said sophomore Katie Smith.

Despite that argument, no matter what organization a student is in, they must put in an effort in order to receive their jacket.

“Things like BPA and Cosmetology take just as much work to letter in as sports or theatre though,” junior Danika Field said. “Anyone who can do that much work to get a jacket deserves a jacket.”

Senior Peter Portman agrees, adding that unless they have tried a club, they don’t know the effort members put in.

“We put in a lot of work to get our jackets, just as much for sports. It’s not fair for other students unless they’ve tried it, and a lot of them haven’t,” he said.