A New Tradition at St. John's

Last year, St. John’s students spent their first day of school in their beds, at their desks, or lounging in patio chairs. “It was an anticlimactic way to enter the realm of upperclassmen,” said current senior Ella West. 

Though the majority of the school year ended up being in-person, which was a universally-recognized privilege, students still missed out on classic rights of passage like homecoming and junior prom. 

The difficulties of perpetual unprecedented-ness and lack of normalcy reminded us all how valuable our time together is. In the Maverick Messenger, a letter to the community, new head of school Dan Ailg wrote, “we can find happiness in solitary pursuits, but we find joy in community.”

With vaccination rates within the school up, and thus COVID restrictions more lax, students are excited to reconnect through a sense of community that was disrupted last year.

To kick off the year with some community building, the Student Affairs Council (SAC), which is led by elected senior Prefects, and also presidents, vice presidents, and representatives from the other three grades, hosted a senior sunrise.

“We missed out on so much stuff together, everyone is really willing to come together and do activities,” said senior and prefect Liv Rubenstein. “Even kids who weren’t super involved in SAC-tivities before want to get involved this year. Everyone wants to have a good senior year.”

Other examples of SAC-tivities include Name That Tune, spoon tag, watermelon eating contests, and trivia. Many of these events and games come from the student body in the form of SAC-suggestions, including senior sunrise!

“It’s nice that all of SAC is so accessible, and if you want something to occur they’ll really put in the effort to make it happen and execute it well,” said senior Sophie Lesniak.

The senior sunrise took place at 6:30 a.m. the first Friday of school. Many seniors parked in the ‘senior lot’ to reserve one of the limited spaces and then walked to the top of the parking garage. 

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much sun, but the community event was still enjoyable! 

“Even if there was no sunrise, at least [we] all had a nice collective experience, and [we’ll] be able to look back on this as the beginning of your senior year, and something you all got to do together,” said Bailey Duncan, Upper School Dean of Students.

The senior sunrise was the first ever for St. John’s and SAC faculty sponsor, Alice Fogler, thinks the event was so great they’ll continue doing it for future grades. The event was a great way to kick off the year in unity and emphasize the importance of community.