It’s almost here. The week of crazy outfits, playhouse building, trike races, deafening drums and the famous Green Day. As Assistant Principal Amy Skeens-Benton says on the announcements every year, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”

Homecoming: a week filled to the brim with infectious school spirit. And that’s the key to it—spirit.

In a survey conducted earlier this year by Harris Poll and commissioned by Varsity Brands, high schoolers with school spirit are shown to perform better academically, engage in more social and civil matters and be overall happier people than students who lack school spirit. It’s the energy of the school, the invisible force that makes students feel included, acknowledged, valued, part of something bigger than themselves.

But how is that energy stirred and who can harness it into something that we are proud of?

As we get older, our stacks of homework grow, and the prospect of our futures loom ahead. Upperclassmen have a lot on their plate but they also have something that they can never escape. They have influence.

Eighty-nine percent of principals in the Harris Poll survey said it is important that they personally build school spirit in their schools and that school spirit leads to higher student achievement. Principals certainly have quite a bit of influence in schools. But principals aren’t the only ones who set the culture. Would a freshman be more likely to look to the principal as an example or a senior they admire? Probably the senior.

Upperclassmen are not the sole people who determine school spirit, of course. All people at CHS have some sort of an effect on their peers or students. Role models must emerge, however, and fill the large shoes that have been left by previous classes.

What will you do to stir the energy up this Homecoming week? Will you go all out with your outfits for spirit days? Will you rally your friends to break the trend of the homecoming dance being just for freshmen? Will you scream at the top of your lungs in the student section of the football game? You may use your creative juices to win the playhouse building competition or be the painter of blue and gold stripes on smiling cheeks. It’s up to you. Rather, it’s up to us. Upperclassmen, it’s time for us to step up and do our part to make our school as academically successful, socially active and happy as possible.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Lilly St. Angelo at [email protected].