Amidst the humid atmosphere of August in Seoul, the sound of footsteps and laughter once again began to fill the hallways of SIS.
With the onset of the 2024-’25 school year, the high school community began the year with a warm welcome for the Freshman class of 2028. On Aug. 16, to help the first-years familiarize themselves with the new high school environment, the HSSC organized a Freshman Late Night with various social activities. Events included Hide ’N Seek, Spin the Bottle, an outdoor water gun fight, and an all-expenses-paid dinner with an array of ramyeon, pizza, chicken, and more.
“The purpose [of Freshman Late Night] was to welcome the freshmen into getting to know more about high school,” Ellen Ryu (12), HSSC Treasurer, said. “During the stations, our purpose was to make them go around the highschool building to know where everything is. Then, by interacting with the HSSC members and upperclassmen, they could get to know everybody.”
As the event took place on the first Friday of the academic year, many freshmen faced schedule conflicts with sports tryouts from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Consequently, numerous activities organized before the tryouts ended, such as charades or the centipede race, had a small group of the grade involved, leaving a seemingly empty atmosphere.
“I think we did the best we could with what we had, but I was a little disappointed,” Mr. Halter, HSSC adviser, said. “It seemed like there were two shifts of freshmen, where the first group was not involved in a sport or an after-school activity, but after being hotwire for an hour and a half, it just didn’t seem like the full class was there, so some of them dodged out of the event. To me, I would like to see them all together, so the thought for next year is that it hopefully works out if we can run the event on the half-day of school right after the club fair.”
However, as a larger group of students began to accompany the crowd after 5 p.m., the activities went much smoother. Increased participation allowed for larger activities to be organized, with Hide ’N Seek emerging as the favorite.
“I’m a relatively new student to SIS, so it was fun being with everyone again,” David Yeo (9), Freshman Late Night participant, said. “Everyone just goes into their friends groups most of the time, but in Freshman Late Night, it was just everyone having fun. [I look forward to] hopefully becoming an HSSC member, so I can give these types of fun events too and plan them for incoming freshmen.”
