PACA’s Spirit Week Competitions Inspire School Spirit and Strengthens School Unity in the Week Before Varsity Nationals

Caption: Spirit Week gave students the opportunity to dress up and compete against each other. The senior class was dressed up as Toy Story characters on Wednesday’s class battle of Disney themes. [photo by Dr. Meier]

by Valentina Porto [in collaboration with Aline Dobashi and Ana Luisa Helfer]

The week of October 20 through 24, was full of color and creativity as PACA students celebrated Spirit Week, dressing up each day according to different themes. Organized by the STUCO Social Life along with other high school class officers, the event brought together students from elementary, middle and high school to boost school spirit before the upcoming Varsity tournaments.

Spirit Week started with Opposites Attract Day: A theme Lucca Machado and Rebeca Bernabe were happy to represent.

Andrew Kim, Matheus Oliveira, Julie Peron and David Choi are off to see the Wizard on Opposites Attract Day.

Rebecca Pavanelo, Bianca Magalhaes and Bruna Marujo give their best “western” pose on Country/Country Club Day.

David Choi, Matheus Oliveira, Pedro Souza and Jun Yoshikawa bring “cool” to the country club look.

The two freshman classes banded together to portray characters from Teen Beach Movie (bikers and surfers).

Disney inspired class theme had the 10th graders dressed as characters from Monster’s Inc.

Disney inspired class theme has Grade 11 dressed for a race in Wreck It Ralph.

Renata Okamoto is surrounded by her adorable look-alikes in Teacher/Student Swap day.

Sofia Vergara and Marina Pavanelo were inspired to dress as their Spanish teacher, Mrs. Leda Sanchez on teacher/students swap day.

Theo Seiji-Silva, Michelle Chang, Rafael Portella and Luke Meier all bring an interesting interpretation of their English teacher, Mr. Clark, to the show.

Bruna Marujo and Priscila Fray show their best child hood vision of themselves on Flashback Friday.

Luisa Almeda, Marina Pavanelo and Lara Pedrosa share their childhood dream of being a nurse on Flashback Friday.

Ethan Spinola shares his childhood dream of being a violinist as Victoria Silva serves as his assistant.

Caption: Spirit Week gave everyone the opportunity to use their creativity and class spirit to represent the themes provided by STUCO for each day of Spirit Week. [by Dr. Cristina Meier, Aline Dobashi, Ana Luisa Helfer and Valentina Porto.] Throughout the week, students came to school in costumes that matched the assigned themes. The runway events, held during lunch, gave students and teachers a chance to show off their outfits to a panel of judges in hopes to win a prize. Although only high school students were eligible to win those prizes, middle schoolers were still encouraged to join in the fun. The week kicked off with “Opposites Attract Monday,” where pairs dressed as famous duos like peanut butter and jelly or ketchup and mustard. The overall winners of the first theme of Spirit Week included a senior group dressed as characters from The Wizard of Oz, who took home the prize for the day. The following day, “Country vs. Country Club Tuesday,” allowed students to pick between being a rustic cowboy or a classy golfer/tennis player. Freshman Nathaniel Humphrey stood out as the best-dressed “country” contestant, earning the win for the day. On Wednesday’s Disney Class Day, each high school grade represented a different movie and performed a short skit. Seniors dressed as characters from Toy Story, juniors brought Wreck-It Ralph to life, sophomores went as Monsters, Inc., and freshmen hit the beach as Teen Beach Movie. The freshman began the competition with an impressive dance and lip sync to a remix of different music from the Teen Beach Movie. Then came the sophomores with a short but sweet performance on the world of monsters. Right after came the juniors with an exciting race between Vanellope and her opponents. Last but not least, the seniors recreated an iconic scene from Toy Story which led them to take first place on this day’s competition. The seniors’ Toy Story costumes won first place, while the juniors’ Wreck-It Ralph outfits earned second. Thursday’s “Role Swap Day” turned the school upside down, as students dressed as teachers and teachers like students. Freshman Sophia Vergara impressed everyone with her hilarious portrayal of Dona Leda, taking the day’s prize. Finally, “Flashback Friday” encouraged everyone to revisit their childhood dreams by dressing up as what they wanted to be when they grew up. The winner and senior, Andrew Kim, showed up as a businessman. When asked about the process of choosing the Spirit Week themes the Social Life coordinator for STUCO, Sofia Saldaña said that it was a team effort among class leadership. “Basically, I kind of made up some ideas and then we had social life meetings and I brought some ideas up to them,” said Saldaña, “and we made some slight little details and changes to help it better fit to PACA.”

At the end of a busy week of Spirit Week activities, the long awaited pep rally began on Friday 8th period. Organized by the cheerleaders, the PACA pep rally is a competition between all of the high school classes (grades 9-12). They planned various cheer inspired activities including shoe throw, box pile and two different partner games. Many competitions came close but the seniors ended up landing on top. The event itself was very entertaining, completing the week on a high note. According to Saldaña, who is also a senior at PACA and part of the Cheerleading squad, all activities for the Spirit Week activities were planned and communicated to STUCO leadership during the social life meetings. “I talked to Davi Magalhães which is the STUCO president,” said Saldaña. “I told him that I didn’t really have a lot of time, so I needed him to get the microphone and while I was not in school I searched up songs that I could play during the day.” Team work and good communication between the STUCO representatives and cheerleading squad helped to make the event a success. This year’s Spirit Week not only gave students a chance to have some fun before Nationals but also strengthened school unity. PACA students once again proved that their spirit goes far beyond the field/court. “This has been an ongoing tradition at PACA for the longest time to bring the school spirit together, because it’s such a fun unique thing that PACA has,” said Saldaña. “Dressing up and everything is kind of leaving behind a little bit of the uniform, especially because it connects the entire school. So high school, Middle school, Elementary and especially Pre-K get to dress up and have fun.”