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.

“We’ve definitely become a more united and spirited class as whole this year. Our class has really stepped it up,” Mirzadegan said. “I saw more blue than any other class color on the Monday spirit day during Homecoming week.”

Decorations significantly improved compared to the class’s previous years. Mirzadegan said the junior class went from an empty sophomore hallway last year to an attractive hallway this year. Tech crew members D.J. Traina, Jason Seo, Fred Feyzi and Keller Lofgren constructed the
junior arch. Another enormous feat was the tin man and its moving arm made by Liu and the robotics team members Todd Nguyen, Daniel Ng, Eugene Che, Stanley Yip, and sophomore David Sparkman.

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.

“The senior and junior class showed a strong example of what can happen when students organize themselves and lead,” Torrens said. “I was so proud of [the juniors] because the quad day was appropriate. It was filled with school spirit, a lot of things an adult would’ve wanted to see in a quad day.”

Like the teachers, student spectators felt the junior quad day did not disappoint.
“Our quad day was amazing,” said junior Nandita Kumar. “I was not expecting it to be as good as it was, just because of all the small things that had to be worked out.”

Many juniors like Kumar were worried for the class’s script, an issue the juniors came across in Homecoming. Compared to previous years, the school is shifting scripts away from making fun of students, especially after the sophomores’ episode.

According to Mirzadegan, who reviewed the juniors’ script twice with assistant principals Karen Hyde and Brian Safine, “this wasn’t a major problem because we learned to be funny without putting down [peers.]”

Despite a stricter script policy, Torrens thought the junior quad day was the best one he has seen, liking how the junior script writers focused on school spirit more than class spirit.

“When [the juniors] said we were going to beat Los Altos, that was awesome!” Torrens said. “Even though it was one little comment, I haven’t heard that kind of school spirit interjected in a quad day.”

Mirzadegan’s goal for senior year is “to enthrall the school even further” with an excellent quad day, a thrilling centerpiece and better decorations than this year’s.

“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.