With the upcoming exams and the countdown to winter break beginning, it’s necessary for students to come together before the time off from school. Junior Class Leadership Council (JCLC) began a “Secret Spartan” gift exchange for members of the junior class as a way to bring the grade closer together. Juniors received a Google Form on Nov. 27  proposing the idea of the gift exchange and later found out who they would be buying a gift for within the next week. All pairings were randomly generated and students had the option to remain anonymous to whoever they give a gift to.

Joseph Bluhm came to Upper School chemistry teacher Mallory Schmidt with the idea of the gift exchange and Schmidt later brought his idea to JCLC.

“I loved his idea, and I knew students would too. All we [JCLC] did was talk to faculty about guidelines surrounding the idea of the gift exchange, and then sent out the Google Form,” Schmidt said.

The week leading up to exams can be noticeably busier for many students and JCLC made sure that anyone who signed up for the gift exchange would be able to make time for the physical gift exchange.

“We made it optional for juniors since student’s schedules can get busy, so we let the students decide when they could exchange gifts instead of having “Secret Spartan” be mandatory for everyone,” Schmidt said.

Along with the exchange being student driven, JCLC was hopeful that students would participate.

“JCLC tries to do things that students want to do, so if we’re able to make it work with students’ schedules and their time, we are happy to let students do things that they want to do.” Schmidt said.

Around one-fifth of the junior class participated in the first “Secret Spartan” gift exchange.

“It was a great bonding activity for the people that took part in it, and I loved that most people who participated in the gift exchange were paired with a classmate they weren’t that close with since the pairings were randomly generated,” JCLC member Mia Litman said.