Most kindergarten students are taught that we should help others simply for the sake of helping others. But in a campus where competition thrives on the bent backs of stress-burdened, sleep-deprived ambitious teenagers, even community service can become tainted.

I started noticing competition between service organizations last year when Soobin Kim, then the President of ISB’s Habitat for Humanity (HFH) chapter, claimed that “HFH is the best organization in the school” at a school-wide assembly. Rivalry between HFH and another service organization Roots and Shoots (RS) ensued, causing unnecessary strife. When RS decided to discontinue a profitable fundraiser only to see it recycled by HFH, anger erupted among the RS leadership team. “It was our tradition,” says Sehoon Joo, underclassman chair of RS. “It’s only a game!” quipped Sophia Jiang, an HFH member.

But this is old news. A change in leadership in HFH allowed service organizations to coexist happily...until a new kid came on the block.

Juniors Ella Gao, Anita Gou, Chloe Ting, and Matilda Wong founded the Nightingale Charity Club (NCC) this year to help patients afford expensive medical treatment. While RS’s People Projects category is very broad, and HFH mostly focuses on housing, Matilda Wong explained that they founded NCC specifically “to improve the medical situation in China”. They were discouraged however, by efforts to sabotage them. “Ella complained that HFH members were ripping off NCC posters,” said Laura Yang, Treasurer of Habitat. “I don’t think our members have done anything like that. I think [the founders of NCC] rip off our posters.” This competition is not just petty; it’s screaming: desperate.

Ironically, student leaders in all three groups agree with Daniel Wu, Vice President of HFH, that rivalry is “just silly.” But instead of pointing accusatory fingers, I ask: what causes it? One factor could be the abundance of charities and fundraisers. Competition is inherent when several groups want to convince the same students to part with their precious monthly cash. Or maybe the competition is for talent: devoted members are efficient, and they foster pride.

But perhaps all these ambitions are part of a much wider and more deep-rooted craving: status. Members or leaders of a successful organization must certainly be more competent than those in a second-rate club. In a school with such a motivated and goals-oriented student body, it seems inevitable that the silly popularity contests of a bygone era have morphed into an equally divisive rating of success.