Clubs and Activities
Sailing
The Sailing Club met every Wednesday to practice on Lake Washington in small crafts donated by the local community boating club.
Staff sponsored a wide variety of clubs meant to engage students outside the classroom. There were clubs that promoted outdoor activities for hunters, equestrians and swimmers. Some clubs promoted academics like Debate Club, Literary Club, and Torch, Hazen’s honor society. The United Nations Club, the Foreign Exchange Club, and the Black Student Union offered Highlanders an opportunity to see inside another’s world.
Music Department
The Hazen Band was invited to perform at the World Expo in Spokane.
The Music Department was large, serving over 500 students in 4 bands, 5 choirs and an orchestra. Like so much of the rest of Hazen, the music wing was unfinished, so ensembles practiced in unused spaces; the cafeteria and the library, as well in McKnight’s music rooms were used until construction was completed.
Hazen Swing Chior
In those early years, the Hazen Swing Choir was #1 in the state.
Hazen’s musical excellence gave the school a presence in the region and the state, and continues to be a source of much pride.
Hazen publications grew as well. The 1969 Lonach (“Come one, Come all”) produced an excellent record of Hazen’s first year. Through a series of photo essays, the Lonach staff documented the “reeking wet paint”, the “closets used as classrooms”, and that the automated “cafeteria was a rumor down the hall”. They wrote succinctly and with purpose about the Hazen philosophy of education (the ‘Hazen way’). They added humorous captions to class photos like, “When is a Junior class not a Junior class? When the Junior class is the senior class at a new school!”. The Journalism classes produced the Highlife, Hazen’s student newspaper. As a start-up publication, the staff had to deal with “no publisher, no money and an inexperienced staff”. The students spent most of first semester back-logging articles and finding their footing. The Editor-in-Chief of the Highlife was Barbara Rupnick who led her staff to its inaugural edition on February 21, 1969. They were proud to have produced 7 editions in second semester.