During this time of quarantine, the Student Government Association (SGA) at Marriotts RIdge is looking for ways to make the end of the year as memorable as possible for the student community, while upholding the safety guidelines provided by the state and school system.
The current end of the year plans are very tentative. Because of COVID guidelines and constantly changing regulations, the current ideas require approval from the county. Nevertheless, the SGA is dedicated to making the end of the year as fun as it can be. The events may be virtual or in-person and socially distanced, depending on the kind of protocols the SGA have to oblige by.
“Our main priority is to foster community,” junior Alice Jacob said. “If there is anything we as the SGA want to accomplish, it’s helping students get a taste of what the Ridge is like normally. We want to maintain those connections we made before the Google meets, and build new ones along the way.”
In order to promote school events, they have sent out Canvas announcements and made Instagram posts. Students are recommended to turn on Canvas notifications as well as follow the SGA on social media in order to stay up to date on all events.
“The most important thing is making sure people are excited. That means their interests and ideas need to be taken into account,” SGA President Anirudh Saxena said. “Accordingly, we’ve been reaching out to students for their ideas and opinions.”
For schoolwide activities, the SGA will likely be running the annual spring food drive, as well as a few online competitions (such as a live teacher wing eating competition, cup stacking, name the song, or bingo night), and maybe even a virtual Spirit Week. However, these events all require student participation. The SGA urges students to attend school events to raise school spirit, as well as reach out to them with any suggestions.
Many of the ideas are adaptations of past events, with slight modifications in order to fit COVID restrictions. The SGA has also been in communication with the SGA’s of other schools in the county in order to discuss county-wide initiatives.
“Due to limited participation in former virtual events, we are actively trying to find new ideas that students will love to see hosted by our school,” Jacob said.
Earlier this year, the SGA sent out a survey with a list of compiled events for students to take, in hopes that they would be able to cater towards the interests of the student community.
These events are not only for show- the SGA wishes to bring the school closer as a whole, forming connections between students and teachers that will be beneficial to all. With these projects either in motion already or soon-to-be initiated, they hope to make the end of the school year as special as possible while staying safe as well.
“While I can’t speak on behalf of the whole SGA, I can say that we are intent on increasing opportunities for student interactions, [both] virtually and hopefully in-person,” junior Anna Kim said.
With these initiatives, the SGA hopes to keep school spirit alive and help students feel like they are a part of the community. They hope to stay safe without losing the cohesion and school pride that was prevalent during the pre-COVID school year.
“It’s been a long and really hard couple of months, but we’ve made it so far,” Saxena said. “I hope that we can all take a moment here and there to just reflect. To recognize that against all odds we’ve continued pushing forward. It’s been exhausting and rather unrewarding, but better days are going to come. Until then, it’s imperative that we keep helping each other and moving forward together.”
These end of the year events will hopefully provide a way to bring the student community together, building up school spirit. The SGA wishes everyone to maintain the connections made before quarantine and build new ones along the way.