Sitting in the yellow Thunderbird with Freddie the Falcon as the car slowly made its way across the track last October, now-senior Eileen Toh relaxed as her work as Homecoming head commissioner was almost over. As she waved to the crowd, stressful thoughts of setting up for the football game, organizing the Homecoming dinner and renting equipment played through her mind.
This year, Toh’s job has been handed over to seniors Yuna Kim and Megana Saripella. Besides Kim and Saripella, the Homecoming commission consists of senior Amy Chiang and juniors Ishana Narayanan and Andrew Zheng.
The commission has been meeting to set rules for the week, prepare for each grade’s Quad Days and coordinate the Homecoming coronation ceremony and dance.
Both Kim and Saripella were on the commission last year, helping to choose the themes and decorating for the football game and coronation.
“I saw so many problems with how Homecoming happened in past years that I wanted to hype it up and be more involved,” Saripella said. “After understanding Homecoming on a better level in junior year, I wanted to help connect our school community even more.”
This year, the girls work together with the ASB, activities director Matt Torrens and class presidents to ensure all activities and events are ready for Homecoming week. They solicit help from the other Homecoming commissioners, who contact shops to purchase flowers and balloons, rent platforms and bleachers and make reservations for the annual Homecoming court dinner.
“The workload is really stressful, but it's nice because I know for sure that it will pay off,” Kim said.
According to Kim, both her and Saripella are constantly on the move, getting information from the office, advice from ASB and help from activities director Matt Torrens.
Over the summer, the commissioners met together to pick themes for Homecoming. Prior to the meeting, all commissioners were required to bring at least three potential themes to the table; at the meeting, the commission discussed ideas, eliminating those that would not work very well for class decorations and skits and those that have already been done in past years.
“Picking the themes was actually one of the easier tasks to do,” Kim said. “We all had similar ideas related to cartoon movies, old school movies, musical or fantasy. In the end, we chose to combine cartoon movies with an old-school style.”
Because of the intense workload, the girls’ involvement in the seniors’ Homecoming is limited; Kim is participating in the partner dance while Saripella is in both the girls Bollywood number and the all-girls’ dance.
“I want to participate in senior Quad Day much more because I have such a high appreciation for the day, but I try not to get too involved so that Homecoming week doesn’t become too hectic,” Saripella said.
Along with college applications and schoolwork, their workload required for planning Homecoming can be intense but rewarding.
“I really like seeing our finished product at the end since it is so satisfying,” Kim said. “Most schools usually decide Homecoming themes by the student body or advisers, so I just took the opportunity that we have at our school and am going to make the best out of it.”