On Thursday August 23rd, Menlo students returned to start the 2018-2019 school year. The day consisted of a welcome-back assembly, an advocacy meeting and a dress-up theme for the senior and freshman grades.

Each year the senior class chooses a theme for the first day of school. This year, the theme was super heros and civilians, which was proposed by senior class president Bella Scola. “ I came up with some ideas by myself, but I mostly talked to people in the class to see their ideas. Then I set up a bunch of surveys to ask people which ideas they liked the most; I had like three surveys. Each survey narrowed down the list of ideas. After the third I picked the one with the most [votes] ” Scola said.

For many incoming freshmen, the first day of high school can be intimidating, but with help from other grades and teachers, the first day can go a lot smoother. “I like the community and everyone seems to be friends with each other even if you are in different grades,” freshman Pippa Fortenbaugh said. The teachers made a great first impression as well on freshman Madison Liu, “They are all really friendly, super supportive and you can go to them when you need help,” she said.

The day commenced with the short assembly, including a relay race where a boy and a girl participated from each grade. “I know we’ve done [the relay race] every assembly since my freshman year. This year I mostly kept the relay the same as what we’ve done in the past, only this time I added the part with the basketball,” Activities Coordinator Izzy Banatao said.

During the assembly, the senior class put in extra effort to insure that the freshmen felt included and welcomed into the Menlo community. “When we first started planning the assembly [Senior Class Dean Cathy Chen] told Marianne and me to try to envision our first day as freshmen, and from there to see how the seniors treated us or ask ourselves what could have been better,” Assemblies Coordinator Conor McCusker said. “Specifically, we made sure to ask the freshmen how they were doing in order to make them feel included. We also just wanted to create an energetic atmosphere to get everyone excited about being back at school, and I think we did that successfully.”