Behind the Scenes: Senior Send-off Rally Leaving CHS: Teacher

Behind the scenes of the Senior Sendoff Rally, taking place on May 23rd

NACHIKET KERAI

writer

It has been over three years since Cupertino High School has hosted its last senior sendoff rally. With very few people on campus with experience hosting a senior send-off rally, the spirit commission, class councils, and dance choreographers faced many hurdles to overcome while planning this rally. T h e first hurdle was the location. Previous rallies this school year have been hosted on the football field, but the send-off rally was moved to the gym. After the spirit commission was told that no indoor rallies would happen this year, they were surprised to hear that the senior send-off rally would take place in the gym. The spirit commission had to learn how to use the audio in the gym and completely change plans from what they initially designed.

Said Julie Yang, ASB’s spirit director, “We had to kind of start over.” The dance choreographers faced issues after the send-off rally was moved to the gym. Since the gym is smaller than the football field, the choreographers had to significantly shrink the dance formations which they had initially designed for previous rallies. The space “ AFTER THE SPIRIT COMMISSION WAS TOLD THAT NO INDOOR RALconstraints and overflow of students onto the gym LIES WOULD HAPPEN floor during THIS YEAR, THEY WERE indoor rallies posed SURPRISED TO HEAR a significant THAT THE SENIOR SEND- challenge for choreographers like Kathleen Hua. Said Hua,, “I’m kinda scared that [the dancers] will hit [the students OFF RALLY WOULD TAKE PLACE IN THE GYM ” watching].” The second hurdle was finding inspiration. Said Yang, “Because we haven’t done the senior send-off rally since our freshman year, it’s been very difficult trying to find out what people usually do and how they have done it in past years.” The spirit commission came up with the idea to have the rally be a mashup of all the rally themes done by the class of 2022. Each of the classes at rally would have a theme matching one the class of 2022 had already executed at previous homecomings. The third hurdle was choosing which groups would perform. Many clubs on campus wanted the opportunity to perform on campus. In order to give every club wanted to perform an opportunity to participate in some way, the spirit commission spread out club performances throughout spirit week and selected only a few to perform at the rally. Despite challenges ranging from the switch to the gym, the tight schedules due to APs and finals, the amount of clubs wanting to participate and the lack of references to draw inspiration from, every person involved in planning the rally has worked their hardest to give a special moment to the seniors

SENIOR SENDOFF

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