As their Quad Day looms closer, times are becoming increasingly stressful for sophomores working on Homecoming preparations.

With many sophomore class officers and students busy with activities during the summer, Homecoming preparations did not start as early as most had hoped.

“We started preparing for Homecoming once school started,” sophomore class vice president Emma Hsu said. “Everything was super rushed, so we are planning to start even earlier next year.”

On a positive note, class president Prosper Chiu said the participation for Homecoming this year has gone up by around 40 students.

“A lot of people are getting involved this year, especially in our class,” Chiu said. “We’ve also started dance practices a lot earlier than we did freshman year.”

With this increase in participation, the sophomores have been able to add K-pop and co-ed pair dances for the first time to their Quad Day performance.

The all-boys’ dance has also surged in popularity this year. With 20 new participants, choreographer George Bian is optimistic about their performance.

“We don’t have the highest expectations, but I am very excited and believe that we will score very high during our Quad Day,” Bian said.

In the meantime, sophomores are beginning to run into issues regarding their Homecoming theme: “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

“I think that the sophomore theme isn’t that great this year because nobody really knows about the movie ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,’” Hsu said.

In order to get the class more engaged with the theme, the sophomore class officers held a movie showing on Aug. 26 on the upper athletic field. Hsu called it a great success and helped familiarize the class to the theme.

“Before I watched the movie, I thought the theme was a bit weird because I had never heard of it, but now that I've watched it, I think it's great and interesting,” Hsu said.

In addition, the sophomores have been having some difficulties with making decorations for the entrance to the school.

According to Chiu, it was initially difficult to plan decorations for their theme.

“There aren’t too many iconic locations or objects in the movie,” Chiu said. “Many of us aren’t sure what decorations would fit into the theme.”

Despite the major obstacles and difficulty with the theme, the sophomores are excited to show the school how far they’ve come since they were freshmen.

“I am certain that our Quad Day will be awesome,” Hsu said. “Everyone has been working hard and I'm sure that it'll pay off.”