School spirit soars with Leadership’s virtual events

On Fridays, tens of students enthusiastically sign into their Zoom classrooms, donning bright red and black spirit gear. Over the course of distance learning, school spirit has soared, in large part due to the class color themed Live Announcements.  

AHS Activities Director Maddy Padilla prides her Leadership class for encouraging school spirit that rivals even the San Mateo Adult School. 

“As one community, we are dedicated to spreading kindness and awareness through our positive-affirmation Microsoft Paint posters,” Padilla said. “Students who express any apathy towards Aragon will be sentenced to participate in all leadership events, effective immediately.” 

To maintain a community that’s as tight-knit as the incestuous British Royal Family, the Leadership and Renaissance classes have been running extraordinary events thanks to the endless possibilities in the virtual world. 

Sophomore Stella Stue-Dent combats her Zoom fatigue by participating in the wonderful heaps of movie nights Leadership hosts. 

“After six straight hours of staring at my computer, I’m at the edge of my seat to watch ‘The Avengers,’ ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron,’ ‘The Avengers: Infinity War,’ ‘The Avengers: Endgame,’ ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ ... in a Zoom room with 5 other blank squares,” Dent said. “It was so heartwarming when Iron Man died and everyone reacted with a sad face emoji.” 

However, not all virtual events are hosted over Zoom. In order to simulate the feeling of being on campus, Leadership promotes the software Tally, in which students can join rooms named after popular lunchtime spots. The feature brilliantly allows participants to eavesdrop on the conversations of those in other rooms. As a part of this new initiative, Leadership students will personally tally up all participants. If this number falls below 50, all 1,700 students will be marked disengaged. 

Hillsdale senior Mark D’Abe-Cent, a Tally participant, joins in its unanimous support after using his Facebook internship skills to hack into his friend’s Canvas account for the link. 

“I love hearing people from 34 different rooms shouting their existential crises and zoom fashion tips so much, I almost want to transfer to Aragon! Almost…,” D’ Abe-Cent said. 

While sophomore Adora Belle does not participate in Tally, the software still indulges her academic and personal needs. 

“Because of Tally, I have to serve eight detentions for being disengaged,” Belle said. “Now, I can spend more time making fond memories at school. Or home. Or whatever this is.” 

Leadership also connects with the student body by posting daily stories to their Instagram account, @aragondons. These stories update students about a plethora of fun events or broadcast Leadership’s personal favorite: positive affirmations. 

Junior Marsh Mallow attests to the Leadership’s community-building and reassuring presence in the virtual world. 

“Leadership is like the big brother I never had,” Mallow said. “After a particularly strenuous school day, I felt emotionally drained and unable to roll out of bed. However, after seeing a ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ banner on the Aragon Instagram page, I immediately got up, cleaned my whole house, completed three sets of the Rock’s workout routine and turned in my year’s worth of missing assignments.”

This year’s Associated Student Body elections have also been a big hit for leadership, with an unprecedented number of voters banding together to provide support for Freshman Raul Bender. A whopping 35 people — the highest voter turnout in Aragon history — wrote in Bender, the sole candidate. 

Junior Donut Claire, a first-time voter, explains her decision to break her political neutrality by voting for Bender. 

“All 35 of us from Mr. Rissoto’s third period precalc class came together to support Raul, who’s always brave enough to take a nap during the lesson,” Claire said. “ASB President is an influential role, and Raul promised to address some burning questions that can not be overlooked. Why is Mr. Colglazier in every teacher related spirit event? Is it too late to switch to credit/no credit? What’s ASB?”

Future ASB candidate and commissioner in the Renaissance class, Freshman Iris Hurtz, envisions a bright future for herself in Leadership.

“I love planning virtual events,” Hurtz said. “I hope we never go back to planning boring snooze fests like Formal or Winter Rally. We have so many ideas that we can easily spend all of class sitting and brainstorming, and we do this often. I hope that when I experience Aragon for the first time next fall, it can be half as spirited as it is virtually!”