Gallery • 6 Photos

Elle Chen

SoCLC member Emily Gisser writes personalized notes to go into the care packages for the sophomores.

Midterms are the last thing on students’ minds as the first semester of the year comes to a close. Although everyone’s hard deserved winter break is right around the corner, students’ stress levels start to build up with the last couple weeks of school. 

Sophomore Lily Ellis said, “I’m really stressed right now because it’s the end of the quarter and exams are coming up too. I have a lot of quizzes and unit tests this week and I’m also trying to study for exams so it’s a lot.”

Sophomore Zelda Harmoning said, “I’m exhausted. I find myself talking when I’m studying and stuff and then I fall asleep because I’m so sleep deprived because I have to spend so much time dedicated to studying and I’m not happy about it.”

Sophomore Gregory Forsberg said, “I have not received any review packets from my classes which is causing me anxiety and stress.”

Upon hearing the growing concerns and complaints of fellow sophomore classmates, the members of the Sophomore Class Leadership Council felt obliged to help plan a small surprise for their class, attempting to lift spirits and boost motivation. 

“In our last meeting, we were talking about little things that we could do for our sophomore class before finals and we got the inspiration from little care packages that the 9th grade advisories made for the 9th grade and we were like oh we want to do something like that but better for the 10th grade. So we order some stuff online and we did budgeting and stuff and all got all that approved by the Dean and today [Tuesday, X-Period] we just got here and put everything together and we’re going to give it away on Thursday,” said SoCLC member Emily Gisser.

In every snowflake care packages, there was a personalized reminder note, two Hershey’s Kisses, a mechanical pencil, and one computer sticker. To top it off, each package was tied with a bright red ribbon.  

While distributing the packages during Thursday during X-Period, many sophomores that picked a package up felt thankful. Although the little presents weren’t much, the thought and actions that went behind the surprise made receiving the gift must more comforting. 

Sophomore Nina Starchook said, “To get a basket filled with like little treats and like little things and like a little note with like don’t forget to get good sleep or get two pencils or get your stuff organized it means a lot because that just kinda like helps remind me that I’m not going through the stress of exams alone and there are a lot of other people who have it the same. And just the small little gifts mean a lot cause its like people care about you and they want you to do well.”

Sophomore Mukeil Rizvi also expressed his gratitude for SoCLC’s gifts. Rizvi said, “I appreciate the goody bags cause they help me be less stressed about exams and the little papers gave me a good idea of what I wanted to do to prepare for them so thank you to whoever made the goody bags.”

SoCLC: mission complete.