From Nov. 13-17, the HSSC launched the first Spirit Week of the 2017-‘18 school year. This annual event, in which both students and teachers dress up to express their school spirit, has been part of SIS’s culture for the past several years. As it has been in the previous years, each day of this year’s Spirit Week represented unique themes: Meme Monday, Twinning Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Throwback Thursday, and Spirit Friday.
“It’s really great that members of the student body are noticing that this year’s Spirit Week brought in more participation than in previous years; that is so nice to hear,” said Kendall Sadler, high school English teacher. “What was different from the past years was that the HSSC organized the event using a committee system, rather than just by grade level counsels. I have to say the teamwork between the different committees really made this Spirit Week exceptional.”
Of all the days of this Spirit Week, an especially large number of students dressed up with their friends to celebrate Twin Tuesday. Students “twinned” their looks by wearing similar clothes with a friend. Some students even arranged to twin in groups of three or more. Hwang Jae-ho (10), Gordon Kim (10), and Yoobin Lee (11) dressed in matching outfits—they had on blue jeans, white-collared shirts, and black ties. Similarly, Angela Kim (11) and Katie Lee (11) wore white shirts with pink plaid skirts, bringing a positive atmosphere to their classes.
“Every year, Katie and I dress up for Twin Tuesday,” said Angela Kim (11). “In previous years, I did not see many people dress up, but this year, a lot of people participated in the event. I saw several cute outfits that I want to try out in next year’s Spirit Week, such as overalls with plaid shirts. I also realized that many teachers were dressed up on this day. For example, Mr. MacEvoy-Hein and Mr. Miller had on matching jerseys, and I thought it was cool that teachers were joining in on the event.”
Although the conventional wisdom is that SIS lacks school spirit, Spirit Friday served as an indicator that that was certainly not the case. A great number of people dressed themselves in orange and black and attended the basketball game after school against Seoul Foreign School (SFS)—the first game of the season. Even though it was just a friendly match, the crowd passionately cheered on SIS athletes by applauding and singing along with the cheerleaders. The cheerleaders heightened the fervor of the game with their spectacular routines and chants.
“It was great to see so many people dress up in tiger colors to truly represent the school,” said Alex Oh (11). “I have to admit that in the past years, no one really dressed up, but this year was different. Overall, I feel like this change really supported the athletes—they played exceptionally well against SFS, a school traditionally thought to be ‘invincible.’ I hope that SIS will be able to maintain this spirit in the following years as well.”