This year’s Homecoming court was announced during the pep rally for the lower classmen, and during the halftime show at the Homecoming football game for the seniors.
This year’s court was Jovie Becklin (12) and Gonzalo Garcia (12) for the senior class, Neka Jazeri (11) and Rijul Kashyap (11) for junior, Verona Caprette-Rubalcava (10) and Michael Dearborn (10) for sophomore and Lila An (9) and Aiden Oliverria (9) for the freshman court.
The Homecoming court consists of two students from each grade level, a King and Queen, that represent their class during the Homecoming dance on Oct.19. The way they are selected varies slightly for the seniors compared to the other grades.
The decision is made through a nomination process where students are able to nominate a fellow student they like from any grade from a QR code. The four students from each grade who get the most nominations are put on the ballot.
Once the nominees have been chosen, students can vote on 5 star students anonymously for the royalties of their own grade level. This was through a link on the canvas announcements, and the site allowed students to enter their ID number and select the name of one queen and one king, however, no description of the candidates were added on the page. Later on, the nominees with the most votes become the royalties.
The only difference for the seniors and the underclassmen election is that eight nominees are chosen instead of four, and the winners are unknown for longer. The senior nominees this year were Ella Pitet (12), Finn Sullivan (12), Makiah Reeve (12), Gabe Widarto (12), Gonzalo Garcia (12), Jovie Becklin (12), Ava Weaver (12) and Kayla Castro (12).
Most students like this process of election but many believe that success depends greatly on popularity.
Pitet says, “I do think it’s…fair…I feel like it’s the student’s choice.” She went on to agree that success is mostly dependent on asking others and knowing people to ask to be nominated and or voted.
Though students who were nominated are often successful because they campaigned, many still did not expect to be nominated and were very pleasantly surprised when they received the news.
When asked what his reaction was, Dearborn said, “I was just sitting in third period and I was honestly laughing when I got [the news]” he continued to say he was “kind of surprised…really surprised actually, [but] I was just very happy.”
Sullivan said he was “happy…it was a fun experience, and we were just kind of doing it as a joke but now it actually [happened]… and now I’m happy,” he continued, “It’s something not a lot of seniors get to do so it’s exciting.”
Running for homecoming court has been a positive experience for so many students and is a wonderful way to get involved with the school.
