Alluring hallway designs. Splashes of color from banners lining the hallways. Inventive parade floats. All of this was achieved by students who have worked every Thursday since the beginning of the year to transform school spirit into something our community has never seen before. Homecoming doesn’t have to be straightforward and predictable, which is exactly why Principle Doan set out with one goal: To reshape homecoming as we know it. This year, he has done just that.
Doan’s high school homecoming experience at his previous school, Eagle Valley High School, also used to be a simple, traditional dance and assembly. Everything changed when EVHS decided homecoming had to be more to build more excitement around the school tradition. When Doan came to Monarch, he wanted to bring the same idea with him.
“The school I was at before had done a traditional homecoming where you do a dance, royalty, and a pep assembly,” Doan said. “But a teacher had brought a new concept forward, which was to have committees at all the grade levels and have a way for everybody to be involved beyond traditional. Which in the past is Student Council.”
The first step was introducing student executives. Executives were students given the opportunity to work more in-depth to create Mohi Mayhem and establish it as a tradition for years to come, and a surprisingly large sum of students stepped up to show leadership within the committees. They are the first executives, which has given them a lot of creative freedom.
“Since it’s our first year, we don’t really have any idea where to start or where we want to go with it. So we’re kind of free falling with all of that,” executive, Austin Tupa (12) said. “But that also makes it fun, because there’s not anything we have to follow. It’s kind of our own rules.”
While Doan’s idea encouraged a considerable amount of students to contribute to growing school spirit, some have been more hesitant to the change than others.
I just didn’t like how it took up my access time,” Emerson Hebeler (9) said. “I get how that’s the time we had to do it, but I need to be able to do homework.”
Choosing to skip the committee meetings and go to Starbucks sounds more appealing to some of the students. Meetings occurred during Thursday access time and can be inconvenient for various reasons.
“Something I think is not the best as I know we’ve got some negative feedback on Thursday access time being taken away,” Isabella Simonetti (12) said. “So maybe in the future, we will decide a different way and time to do it.”
Hoping Monarch Mayhem will grow on the community as a whole and in turn induce more school spirit, Doan plans on making Monarch Mayhem an annual event, hoping to connect the student body every homecoming from now on.
“Yeah, the change I hope that happens is that it’s seen as school spirit. School Spirit is owned by everyone right there. It’s not just Monarch Militia, it’s not just Student Council, it’s not just a sports team that, like your belief in and your connection to the school can come in lots of different ways.” Doan said.
Monarch Mayhem is something that sets our school apart. Despite its challenges, it has encouraged everyone to play a part in strengthening school spirit- something our school has never seen before.
“After they can see the results of this year they will get more excited about it in the future,” Simonetti said. “And hopefully, wanting to put more into it and getting more passionate about it.”
