It might be time to rethink HOCO spirit week

Kaiya Lakes | The Chronicle

A popular expression in the halls of Mason High School (MHS) says that “we bleed the green and white,” and generally speaking, I would agree. I think MHS has an abundance of school spirit – however, this fall I observed that fewer students participated in the Homecoming Week themes, leading me to consider school spirit. Is school spirit really declining or is it just time to revisit how we can increase student engagement?

To me, there’s no correct way to show off your enthusiasm regarding MHS. While discussing this with classmate Emma Zellner, we decided that having spirit means feeling pride in your school and your community while finding a way to show it off. It’s making sure that we create a community where everyone feels involved and valued. I do think that while spirit is theoretically immeasurable, it is logical to suggest that greater student participation can lead to a more “spirited” student body. The bigger question is whether or not Mason’s students’ enthusiasm toward Homecoming Week has begun to run dry over the years, specifically with school traditions.

Change is imminent. However, it seems daunting to move away from what our school has known for so long. No more pep rallies? No more dress-up days? Will we be able to create new traditions that instill excitement in MHS students the way that these once did? Student Government junior class officer Megha Nadagouda, who helped to organize Homecoming Week, tells me that part of the planning process is considering what is trendy, fun and relevant to the majority of the students here at MHS. With this in mind, I wondered if the amount of work that Student Government puts in is as applauded as it should be; due to changing trends and shifts in the student perspective of “fun.” After talking with many of my peers, some involved in sports, some involved in clubs and some who openly are more excited to be a Comet than others, I concluded that if spirit week continues without any modifications, no matter how small, students will continue to disregard the effort that our school puts in to make Homecoming Week exciting.

Nadagouda said that she too has noticed a decline in involvement, and as somebody so actively involved in the school, she is passionate that if participation in things like spirit week is waning, it is time to innovate and consider other possibilities to maximize student engagement.

I believe in order to effectively boost student involvement we need to look into collaborating with other people in the Mason community to create large-scale events that take place during the school day during homecoming week, events like Super Fun Connect Time.

I think we should move towards activities that are more engaging to all students, instead of select groups of people throughout the school, like athletic teams. Nadagouda said that she is working to recommend things like themed trivia, a talent show that might have some correlation to the homecoming theme of the year, or even a community service project brought to MHS.

Our ultimate goal as a school is to foster teamwork, communication, engagement, and excitement surrounding MHS as a community. If we can revisit spirit week with the same passion and school spirit, specifically considering school-wide events, we can help boost engagement and have fun doing it.

I think that the overall objective of Homecoming Week should be to boost spirit as much as possible, whatever that might mean to you.