At many schools, sophomores are often ignored. Various student-led organizations and administrations commonly focus initiatives on aiding freshmen in their adjustment to the new climate, juniors in their college search, and seniors in their college application process. However, this is not the case at HMHS; Sophomore Day, run by Peer Leaders and focused on improving interaction between students, has proved a success in countering this trend.

The school allowed sophomores participating in Sophomore Day, held on December 12th, to take the day off of school to partake in the planned activities. However, not all chose to participate. A minority opted out and instead remained at the school, citing the need to stay caught up in classes consisting of a majority of students from other grades and the need to work on homework.

For the majority who chose to participate, the day began at 8:00 AM after waiting outside for about fifteen minutes after the stated arrival time to allow ample time for stragglers to trickle in. Students were then checked in, divided into four groups, and loaded onto one of four buses. Then, following a roughly half an hour bus ride, participants arrived at the Coliseum, which is located in Voorhees, and ushered into one of four rooms in which HMHS’s Peer Leaders led the sophomores in activities.

The day contained many icebreakers to allow students to become more comfortable with those in their group. Activities, which included the song game, a questionnaire, rainbows, ships and sailors, and huggy bear, served to break down barriers between students as all took part in the somewhat bizarre but fun games. Lunch, which was then held at 11:30, consisted of a buffet with sandwiches, cookies, and water bottles. Additionally, those with allergies were accommodated for. Personal interviews were then held after lunch; participants divided into small groups, then one person in the ‘hot seat’ was subject to the questions of others in the group, allowing students to get to know each other better. Following this, students left the Coliseum around 1:45, arrived back around 2:20, and were dismissed from there.

However, the day did have some room for improvement. Notably, the room in which one of the groups was in was excessively hot, at one point even reading 79°Fahrenheit, causing some students to develop headaches. Most other rooms, however, were at comfortable temperatures. Water bottles were also not provided in rooms. In the future, administrators could take appropriate action to fix temperature problems and ensure access to water bottles and/or a water fountain in rooms.

Overall, Sophomore Day definitely helped students to get to know others in their grade better. Practically all emerged from the day with a better sense of who at least a few others were. Kudos to the administration for allowing it to be held!