From Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, the High School Student Council (HSSC) hosted a series of lively events to foster school spirit. From vibrant rainbow outfits to frightening Halloween costumes, many high school students and teachers were seen wearing clothes in accordance to the daily dress codes or “themes.” Considering the substantial amount of workload for students around this point of the year—college applications for seniors, SAT preparation for juniors, and AP summatives for sophomores—spirit week came at an opportune time.
“The HSSC members felt that this time of the year is especially hard for a lot of students,” said Joshua Hahn (11), a member of the junior student council. “By coordinating spirit week events, we wanted to increase school spirit to not only entertain the students but also encourage unity among the student body.”
With the HSSC’s thorough publicization of spirit week through posters, banners, and social media outlets such as Facebook and Instagram, a great number of students participated in the various events of spirit week: Moojigae Monday, Twin Tuesday, Halloween Wednesday, Sporty Thursday, and Spirit Friday. Each day had a unique “theme” that encouraged the high school community to sport an unconventional fashion. For instance, Moojigae Monday prompted students and teachers to coordinate rainbow attires while Sporty Thursday motivated them to dress in their favorite sportswears.
“As a student who participated in all of the events throughout the week, I strongly believe that spirit week in general helped us strengthen our bonds with our peers,” said Claire Kim (10). “It definitely sparked some school spirit. With all the prizes and the fun, I saw many students participating in a lot of the events.”
Students generally seemed to agree that spirit week relieved them of their everyday experience at school, which they often find academically demanding. As a result, spirit week not only brightened the student atmosphere but also provided a refreshing experience for the high school staff and faculty. In particular, many teachers were able to perceive the positive impact of the vitalized student body on days that had comparatively greater participant turnouts, such as Halloween.
“Some days seemed to be more popular than others, and Halloween was certainly one of them,” said Anthony Loveday, AP Psychology teacher. “Throughout the day, other teachers and I talked about how fun it was to see students dressed up. However, the somewhat lack of enthusiastic participation for some of the other days still left me wishing for a bit more school spirit at SIS.”
Although some events were proven to be more successful than the others, spirit week was nevertheless a fruitful endeavor to spark school spirit and rejuvenate students and staff at SIS, as attested by the notable number of participants. Taking both the successes and shortcomings of spirit week into consideration, the SIS community will hopefully become even more closely-knit and enjoyable through similar events in the future.