Features

Virtual Spirit week enlivens online classes

Laura Haushalter, Editor of Sports

April 24, 2020

Tom Jurczak, science department faculty, and his AP Chemistry students show off their pets on Tuesday for “bring your pet to school day.” Students have a variety of live animals and stuffed animals.

Students who were mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or checking their email on April 18th got to see a dynamic message from the student government executives. As Webbies clicked on the message, they saw familiar faces and heard an exciting announcement regarding a Virtual Spirit Week in the upcoming school week of April 20th to 26th.

“We decided to do a Virtual Spirit Week to try and keep spirit up, spice things up a bit, and unite everyone despite being apart,” said VWS all-school vice president, Abbie Oh Arroyo (‘21).

Shortly after their Instagram announcement, the execs announced the themes for each day, which differed very much from the traditional themes that would normally be seen during the regular school year.

The Virtual Spirit Week schedule features unique themes only possible on Zoom, like different backgrounds. Graphic Courtesy of student government.

Before the campus suspended in-person classes, student government was busy planning the annual Webb Day Competition. This year was going to feature a Spirit Week ahead of the weekend competitions to amp up the excitement around the event. However, unlike the weak Homecoming Spirit Week in November 2019, student government had hoped that this Spirit Week would be more similar to Theme Nights Week.

“We had the daily themes picked out for the Webb Day Spirit Week, which everyone in student government helped [choose], so we started from those themes,” said Shannon Uppal (‘21), VWS all-school vice president. “We then had to modify themes which no longer made sense into themes that could be easily done virtually and would be engaging for the student body.”

Overall, the week had moderate participation, but student government hopes more people will participate in the future. Student government collected screenshots of Zoom classes and shared them with the community on their Instagram.

“I think the participation was great and I think a lot of students are enjoying Spirit Week, even if it is online,” said Nick Lee (‘22), spirit commissioner. “It has definitely been more difficult to advertise this event since we are not all together. However, I see a majority of the students still dressing up, bringing pets to school, or showing their Webb pride even during this difficult time, which is pretty awesome.”

“Personally, I really enjoyed the [bring your] pet [to class] day,” said Abbie. “It was fun to see everyone’s pet just kind of chilling while we were all doing our work. If we tried pet day [on campus] at Webb it would probably be really chaotic.”

“My favorite day would have to be the dress-up day on Thursday because I feel so lazy wearing my pajamas to school every day,” said Shannon. “I see it as a form of self-care, to get up earlier and pick out a nice outfit to wear.”

In the future, student government hopes to create more of these virtual types of Webb experiences. While they can not replace the in-person connection and fun that Webb is known for, it provides a little bit of normality in such strange times.

“Aside from a spirit week, we have been thinking about putting on some sort of virtual spirit games,” said Abbie. “This is still being discussed, but I think the events would be really fun. I hope that we can get spirit games going and maybe even get grades together on a massive zoom call.”

As the community adapts to being physically apart, the spirit of Webb will carry on through events like Virtual Spirit Week.

About the Contributors

Laura Haushalter, Public Editor

Enthusiastic, positive, determined, and athletic, Laura Haushalter (‘21) uses her passionate attitude to take on many leadership roles: captain of the VWS cross-country and swimming teams; Student Government spirit commissioner; and the Public Editor for the WCC. As the Public Editor, Laura oversees all the social media accounts for the WCC. In addition to normal Editor-in-Chief responsibilities, she helps the WCC gain more publicity, making sure Webbies stay informed and updated about the latest articles. Laura is extremely passionate about environmental justice and climate change, which is why her favorite class she has taken at Webb is Honors Global Society and Sustainability. In her free time, you can catch Laura watching Friends or Veep, listening to AJR, Beach House, and Cardi B, or running on Thompson Creek Trail. Her goals this year are to make the WCC’s social media accounts more active, and make the most of her last year at Webb.

Sydney Wuu, Editor-in-Chief

Imagine being Editor-in-Chief for the Webb Canyon Chronicle, VWS all-school president, co-captain of the varsity tennis and water polo teams, and a big-time koala lover! Sydney Wuu (‘20), a senior boarding student from Pasadena, California, is all of these descriptions at once. You can catch Sydney listening to Khalid, watching Disney movies, or hanging out with her friends eating green tea mochi. Born on July 1st, Sydney portrays many of the characteristics of a Cancer: creative, loyal, and adventurous. Sydney employs these skills in her favorite humanities classes such as Advanced Studies Human Migration or Advanced Studies Cold War Era. Her goal this year is to broaden the horizons of the WCC with different forms of media, such as YouTube, Spotify playlists, and infographics.