Sophie Lancaster
Staff Writer
Who could forget last week when senior Quintin Halls fearlessly took the stage and entertained us all with his humorous questions and witty comments? Although everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, I couldn’t help but think what is student of the week, and how do I not get chosen? Amidst all of the questions, answers, and laughter during the interview, this question only seemed to cloud my mind more and more. In following days, I was happy to know that I wasn’t the only one with this pessimistic train of thought. Or maybe I should say I wasn’t the only freshman with this train of thought.
Every student from the class of 2017 seemed to have the same general feeling towards this new weekly tradition. It typically went something like this, “I do not want to be student of the week!” However, reflecting more and more on this new assembly segment got me thinking that we, as freshman in particular, should be excited to get to know our grade more, and even more excited to get to know the other grades. I’m sure Saniya Jaffer, our new senior, wasn’t too thrilled to be put on the spot in front of the entire Upper School student body. However, if you asked her after, I’d bet it made her feel more comfortable with our environment. I mean, we are pretty welcoming, if I do say so myself. Asking anyone else after Q’s interview would probably lead to them telling you it gave them a good laugh and they actually learned a thing or two about a member in our community.
So, if you happen to be a cup half-empty person like me, you’re not alone. On the contrary, if you’re eager to be the next student of the week then I applaud your enthusiasm and you can forget this article all together. However, as Romans, we should be eager to get in front of our peers and tell them about ourselves. Going to a school like Latin, we forget that our community is so small and we should take advantage of every opportunity to grow closer as a student (and faculty) body.
Despite our combined stage fright, I think we can all agree that student of the week is not something to dread, and I encourage everyone to hope that it will be them. Although I am still crossing my fingers that it won’t be me anytime soon, I am looking forward to seeing who will be sitting up there next time. And to that lucky student, just remember we are all excited to be hearing about you, and thankful that we have a whole week of refuge before being faced with being—dun, dun, dun—student of the week.]]>
bhennessy • Oct 1, 2013 at 8:51 pm
Thanks to our Communications Tzarina, Hannah Crane, for bringing back student of the week – a tradition lost in the annals of Latin’s history. I for one hope that everyone will be willing to participate in student of the week, but we’d never force it on anyone! The randomly selected student will get an email in advance where they can confirm or refuse participation. So…CHECK YOUR EMAIL, Y’ALL!!! Here’s hoping Latin is a community that will embrace all of its student – shy, outgoing, awkward, and confident.
Nice article, Sophie. Also: can we try to get #SOTW trending?????
wnuelle • Oct 1, 2013 at 8:37 pm
I really like what you have said here. After being initially surprised by the first SOTW, I decided I really liked it. I don’t think there is anything like it at Latin and that’s it’s actually something very important that we’re missing. It gives students the chance to create conversation organically with one another with the prompting of a single question and it seems to usually end in laughs. I really think it’s one of the best ideas anyone at Latin has had in a while (not that no one at Latin is having brilliant ideas) but this one is particularly brilliant in a very subtle way. It’s funny, it’s natural and totally unscripted (which is a deviation from a lot of what we see in gatherings) and ultimately spontaneous, it’s something that we can all enjoy together.
Kudos to whoever came up with this idea, and good article Sophie.