Oviedo High School features more than 15 diverse clubs, with themes ranging from learning and building bonds in clubs like Crocheting or Dungeons and Dragons, to celebrating unique cultures like Oviedo’s newest club, Latina Women’s Club. Building a path for herself and fellow Latina women of Oviedo High School straight from the ground up, first time president and sophomore Victoria Lopez-Olmedo is creating a space for Latina women to make strong connections. Among its many impressive clubs, Oviedo High School already features a Spanish club, with meetings held other Tuesdays twice a month. Now we have a similar club “competitor” for the Latinas of OHS.

Before the club had even started they started running into problems. They experienced a change and swapping of hats in the form of club sponsors. Though Lopez initially panicked due to specific troubles of meeting a lot of new people and organizing the club, fortunately, they had formed a strong connection with the club’s current sponsor Ms. Diana. With the club finally getting into the swing of things, what’s so distinctive about it?

“We want to share all the latina womens that have been in history”, said Ms. Diana. Adding her want intentions of sharing the experiences of Latina women that are also around the community 

“I noticed that [Spanish Club was] more based on culture,” Lopez said about Spanish Club after going to an interest meeting. 

Lopez wasn’t wrong in this assessment, as Spanish Club spends meetings focusing on a specific cultural group or significant figures. Members then learn more about the same culture in the next meeting, along with sampling food that participants of the club brought in, then doing activities to get as familiar as they can with their new knowledge. 

Yet, Lopez admitted that they felt like something was missing. “I felt like there was a lack of community for Latina women,” Lopez said.

Other officers expressed similar concerns. Community outreach officer Amanda De Jesus Negron, sophomore, felt that there wasn’t a space for Latinas to meet or connect.

“There’s a lot of Latinas here, not a lot of us know each other,” De Jesus Negron said. They expressed their hopes in the club being able to bridge that gap from peers to acquaintances. Establishing the club also meant establishing “a sense of belonging,” De Jesus Negron said, incorporating Oviedo High School’s 2024-2025 message as well as hitting their mark dead center on what the club wanted to bring to the table, while being distinct from the Spanish club.

Similarly to the president, officers of the club are sophomores as well. While the pressure and title of president doesn’t rest on their shoulders, they equally have to help maintain the club. “With the officer position, it makes me have a sense of responsibility,” De Jesus Negron added. First responsibilities included looking for new and potential officers for the Latina Women’s Club. Though it is a hard job, De Jesus Negron was prepared, as it is not their first time with responsibilities like this, being an officer in ROTC.

The hardships of 2025 have yet to stump these up and coming leaders of the club, as the club had their first official meeting on January 31st, 2025. During the meeting, they distributed friendship bracelets, as well as dove into detail about the intricacies and inner workings for things to come in the following weeks. The Latina Women’s Club has hit the ground running and is sure to make a splash at Oviedo High School.