Juniors pave a successful yellow brick road toward a cleaner Homecoming

Despite placing second in Homecoming week, competition was not in the mind of most juniors. Many felt that after the sophomores’ disqualification, the junior class had a bigger mission to achieve the next day: to set a proper example of what a quad day should be like for the underclassmen.

“I wanted to leave the underclassmen in awe the same way I was left in my freshman year when I saw the junior quad day,” said junior Angela Kempf-Luu, one of the choreographers. “The one thing I remember someone telling me in my freshman year was, ‘Just wait for the junior and senior quad days, they’ll show you how it’s done.’”

Most underclassmen spectators were indeed “left in awe,” as Kempf-Luu had hoped, and learned how to improve their quad day for next year.

“I did overall feel that this year’s juniors did their job to set a good example for our class as to how to make our dances and decorations better next year,” sophomore Vivian Wang said. “I was pretty impressed with the juniors. They were amazing; it’s like you can’t believe these were the same people from last year.”

Junior class treasurer Amin Mirzadegan also noted the dramatic change within the junior class.
Decorations significantly improved compared to the class’s previous years. Tech crew members D.J. Traina, Jason Seo, Fred Feyzi and Keller Lofgren constructed the junior arch. Liu and the robotics team members Todd Nguyen, Daniel Ng, Eugene Che, Stanley Yip, and sophomore David Sparkman made the tin man and its moving arm.

Junior class adviser Matt Torrens attributes both the junior and senior classes’ success to “a really strong group of peer leaders that were very active,” claiming he played an insignificant role to the juniors’ production.

“I think our class’s Homecoming success just shows that even if you’re faced with adversity and you start off small, you can put in the time and effort to have one of the most [amazing] quad days and decorations of all time,” Mirzadegan said.