According to House sponsor Sarah Wolff, this year House received approximately 1,000 applications, nearly double the number that it received last year. After sorting through the applications, Wolff says that she and the Cabinet members knocked out about 600 applicants and accepted 450 highly qualified students.

“In the past 10 years, the number of applicants has slowly gone up, and I think that the increasing competitiveness of college applications has helped to drive that up,” Wolff said. “I would also like to think that our mission of serving our school and our community is getting out there to students and they’re wanting to participate, so as a sponsor I would like to think that that’s why as well.”

Speaker of the House Meredith Baranowski echoes these sentiments, and added that she thinks people are starting to see all of the great things that House does.

“Cutting applicants this year was extremely difficult, and everyone that applied did an awesome job so I wish that we didn’t have to cut so many people,” Baranowski said.

The first fundraiser this year is a car wash to raise money for Riley Hospital, which will be held Sept. 15 at the Marathon gas station on 116th and Rangeline from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Following that, the first event of the year will be the annual Tailgate for Life event, which will take place Sept. 21 at the football stadium, to benefit the American Cancer Society.

“We don’t do anything for ourselves; everything that we do is to volunteer or help others, which makes what we do so awesome,” Wolff said.