Every year, Homecoming brings the classes together in friendly competition. Though often less than half of each class participates with the exception of the current seniors, student involvement is really what makes Homecoming week special, and this year many students who haven’t participated years prior made an effort to help out.
Junior Josh Pi is one of the students tried out Homecoming activities for the first time by learning moves for a few Quad Day dances.
“I wasn’t involved before because I didn’t think that Homecoming was a big deal,” Pi said. “Now I only have two years left [at the school], so I really wanted to try new things and participate in school events.”
Pi believes that the experience was well worth it.
“It was super cool too see the whole junior class work together to create an amazing quad day,” Pi said.
Having skipped freshman and sophomore year quad day preparations as well, junior Jackie An had some reservations about getting involved.
“I guess I was a little bit intimidated by the upperclassmen,” An said. “Also, none of my close friends were doing it, so naturally I didn’t either.”
However, this year An performed in the junior Quad Day for girls and the finale.
“I ended up becoming better friends with some new people, which was nice,” An said. “Since we’re upperclassmen now, I really think we did a better job and now I’m even more excited for new year.”
Many seniors took advantage of their last year at SHS and made an effort to participate in Homecoming. Senior Sasha Samoilov helped with decorations this year since the schedule conflicts blocking him previous years have cleared up.
“I made decorations an utmost priority this year because I think we should set an example for underclassmen,” Samoilov said. “It’s been a lot of fun — everyone had so much energy.”
For Samoilov, participating in Homecoming brought him closer to the senior class.
“When hard work and time are put together, spectacular things are bound to happen,” Samoilov said. “I see a much more unified senior class.”
Senior Edgar Chen also made the most out of senior year by trying his hand at acting in the Quad Day skit. Chen played Yoshi, the famous green dinosaur, in the Super Mario Brothers-themed performance.
“I’ve always really wanted to be a part of [Homecoming], but in the past I wasn’t able to mainly because of my schedule and my parents,” Chen said. “Then [senior] Jason [Li] asked me to be a part of it and told me that I wouldn’t have to worry about schedule commitments, so I agreed.”
Now that he was able to participate, Chen is proud of the senior class’s efforts and thought the experience was fulfilling.
“I was a bit nervous for my performance, but in the end all the pieces came together to make an amazing performance,” Chen said. “I’m definitely proud of our senior Quad Day.”