Leaving their meeting in Borden Athletic Center, Uppers were offered donuts.
Students gathered with their respective grades during the All-School Meeting (ASM) block on September 26. Each class had their own event including Equity, Balance, and Inclusion (EBI) lessons, speed-dating activities, and college counseling meetings.
Juniors and Lowers participated in activities headed by EBI Seniors. Brigitte Leschhorn, Transitional Director of the EBI Program, explained that this was part of the new approach to EBI, with class meetings for underclassmen. Lowers participated in ice-breakers and skits directed by EBI Seniors.
“The topic I chose, fun management, for ninth grade, worked really well. We had lots of adults help in that class meeting, so that felt like the right topic. In the tenth grade program, we have EBI Seniors run it in small groups, and all of the activities are actually designed by EBI Seniors. In the fall term of tenth grade, there’s a lot of topics that we are thinking about [such as] our values as a community and how to really build a diverse community that we live in,” said Leschhorn. “We were really thinking about honesty and integrity, especially in our online lives versus our real-world lives.”
Juniors engaged in discussions and collaborations centered on managing fun, enabling students to converse with new peers and familiar friends. Helen Xiong ’29 recalled the activities Juniors participated in and weighed the merits and shortcomings of the prompts she and her peers were given to discuss.
“In the end, we filled out a ‘Fun and Wellness Management’ sheet designed to help us organize our time efficiently,” said Xiong. “I enjoyed the event because we had the chance to talk with our neighbors about different questions and scenarios. It didn’t feel boring since it encouraged thinking rather than just listening. I liked hearing other people’s answers on what activities they like to do since their responses gave me ideas I could try myself. However, I felt that many of the questions were a bit too generic and didn’t always require a lot of thinking.”
Class Representative Jonathan Oh ’27, also enjoyed socializing with his friends during the Upper class meeting. Oh commented on the aspects of the event he believed were most engaging, noting that it was an opportunity to talk to his peers and make new friends.
“Along with donuts [it] was a pretty successful class meeting. The biggest thing I learned was really trying to engage the class instead of lecturing them or having an activity that isn’t really engaging. It was a little more engaging for our class because people were randomly paired. The main focus of the event this past Friday was to get people talking to other people,” said Oh.
While the other class meetings were more recreational, Seniors met with their college counselors. Elisa Lee ’26 felt that she gained crucial takeaways beyond application tips.
“We met with our college counselors to talk about application deadlines and expectations. It reminded me about the importance of sacrifice, realizing how little time we have, and the need to manage it well, even if it means giving up some sleep or fun time… I ended up feeling more stressed and anxious after the meeting, but it was still a good reminder to stay focused and gain perspective,” said Lee.
