As the lights in the Large Gym went out last Friday, colors flew around the packed gym. Thrown from all sides of the room, the glow sticks that had been handed out at the beginning of the assembly painted the air in rainbows as students’ screams echoed off the walls.

The assembly marked the end to the second annual “Speak Up for Change” week, led by seniors Sarah Finley, Jennie Werner and Manini Desai. The Leadership class-sponsored event took place during the week of Jan. 21-24.

Friday’s assembly began with students and teachers speaking live or via video to discuss their growth as individuals throughout high school. Students such as seniors Sam Guy, Jason Tatman and junior Melissa Rogan talked about learning to succeed despite the stresses and struggles of high school.

Assistant principal Brian Safine said he was impressed with the speakers’ courage.

“It’s very challenging for a young person to share something really personal, so anytime someone is willing to do that, I reflect on my own experiences as a teenager and think, ‘There’s not a chance in the world I would have been able to do that,’” Safine said. “I am really appreciative of people willing to take that risk.”

Music teachers Jonathan Pwu and Jon Jow, along with attendance secretary Mandy Armes, also discussed their experiences at the school and their reasons in returning to Saratoga for a career in education. These speakers viewed their stories as positive experiences, which contributed to the leadership class’s efforts to change the week’s overall tone.

“It was really interesting to hear different people's stories depending on their backgrounds or what they were interested in,” sophomore Nicole Chiou said.

However, junior Michelle Luo felt that making the assembly positive and lighthearted was not as effective as the darker, more serious assembly last year.

“It was not as heartfelt,” Luo said. “It would have been more effective, but the speakers did not seem as genuine, and I was expecting to cry and be really touched.”

But it was the glowstick activity that drew the most criticism from students.

Junior Nidhi Vellanki said that although the majority of the students were respectful, a certain few lost focus of the message of the activity.

“A few of the kids were immature, so they ruined the whole point of ‘just be kind,’” Vellanki said.

The activity was intended to be one that brought the student body together with questions related to changing school culture. Instead, some students decided to overlook the message of the activity and threw their glowsticks across the room.

“We have a wonderful student body,” assistant principal Brian Safine said. “The only time things got a little out of hand during the assembly was when the lights went out, so lesson learned.”

Additionally, the leadership class granted several wishes at the assembly, including dedicating a page in the yearbook to senior Andy Chen and playing a video from sophomore Amanda Meserve’s father, who is stationed in Afghanistan.

Even better, students enjoyed a rare weekend without any homework, a gift granted from teachers.

“I thought that the [wish granting] was great,” junior Irene Chen said. “I thought it was really funny and thoughtful. It was really well thought out.”
 
Classroom activities

To spread the message of community throughout the week, the leadership class organized several classroom activities for each school subject, with topics such as sleep, AP courses and peer pressure.

Finley said the leadership class split into groups and came up with topics for each class.

“We got a leader for each subject area, and then they got volunteers from the class to help them,” Finley said. “Each of the groups came up with lessons [for the subjects]”.

Vellanki thought the mini-lessons were not very helpful because many teachers half-heartedly presented the slideshows and videos, while some did not work on the activities at all.

“A lot of my classes didn’t really do the activities,” she said. “[We did not do them in] math or history, only English, orchestra and science.”

However, sophomore Ankitha Sarvesh thought the activities were effective and were an improvement from the previous year.

“This year was a lot more interactive with the teachers, and I thought that was really cool since I had something to look forward to in every class,” Sarvesh said.

A misunderstood message

Similar to last year, the week began with a keynote speaker, this year an entertainer named Jason Hewlett. He spoke about listening to “your heart instead of your head” and learning to embrace uniqueness.

Junior Anish Srinivasan said that he enjoyed the assembly because of Hewlett’s unique style.

“He seemed really comfortable in his shoes, which I thought was really special about him,” Srinivasan said. “Overall, he was being as weird as he possibly could, and he didn’t care about what other people thought, so his main message was that you shouldn’t give into peer pressure.”

Keeping students going

Although there is debate whether the week was actually effective, the week-long event tried to remind students to be kind, considerate and compassionate towards their classmates.

“We mainly [tried to] provide students with a way to become inspired to create change on campus and a motivation and a means for promoting positive change,” Finley said.

One of the major changes that leadership hoped to make this year was to promote the idea that the school is a community, as well as to focus on Saratoga pride, as opposed to last year’s more serious theme of fitting in and being different.

Werner said that this message “parallels with Mr. Robinson’s efforts to build school pride for all aspects of Saratoga, not just our academics.”

Desai also added that the week was intended to let students know that they have a strong support system.

“We want the message to be that we’re all here for each other,” Desai said. “We are not trying to bring each other down, even though [school is] stressful.”

Added Desai:“We are trying to find ways to continuously let the school know that we are there for them. [This way], people will see little acts of kindness at school, and hopefully, it will keep motivating them.”

Creating a permanent change

The main goal for the Speak Up for Change Week, according to Werner, is to gradually make a difference within the school.

“We know one week won’t change school culture, but I believe small acts over time will,” she said. “As new freshman classes come to [school], hopefully they will pick up on this message until eventually, the school culture does change.”

Safine hopes that the week reminded students that they have support within the community.

“I always want students to think they’re not alone with whatever challenge is going on in their life,” he said. “I want students to think that there is no expectation for perfection.”

Overall, leadership hopes that the week will continue to encourage students to take the time to be kind to one another and to really celebrate the time spent at school.

“Yes, we want to get good grades in class, but it’s not a fight to be at school,” Desai said. “It should be a place where you want to be, where you feel comfortable being.”