Hoping to help new students and freshmen assimilate into high school, the Tiger Sports Council (TSC) and HSSC hosted Opening Night on Sept. 3 from 4 to 7 pm. To provide several activities for students, the event was split into four stations: two involved cheering for the varsity and junior varsity volleyball teams, who had their first home games against KIS, while the other two provided more leisure time for students to interact with one another through activities, such as Mafia and Speed Quizzes.

According to Elliot Nam (9), turnout was not as large as expected because of two reasons. First, freshmen students were unable to attend the event due to fall sport practices. Secondly, many students found the date inconvenient as it was during the middle of the week. Nevertheless, the students who participated in the activities expressed their contentment with the experience.

“Cheering for the games was probably the best part about Opening Night,” Elliot said. “The new kids were shy about participating in the activities at first, but by the end of the night, I did get to know a lot of them because the activities required us to collaborate with one another. Although the results of the game were a little disappointing, overall I think cheering for the games helped promote school spirit and unite the student body.”

Opening Night replaced Freshmen Last Night for the first time this year in order to attract more people and to provide new students and freshmen with further opportunities to interact with the rest of the SIS community.

Although some HSSC members such as Eunice Kang (12), executive public relations officer, were concerned about the lack of interactive activities organized for new upperclassmen, new students such as Garam Lee (11) were appreciative of the opportunity to socialize with others.

“I think [Opening Night] was a great chance to feel the school spirit,” Garam said. “I felt that students were really engaged in the game and although I don’t play sports myself, I genuinely enjoyed the overall atmosphere and the intensity of the games. The event helped me gain a better insight about the people here at SIS.”