On the night of Oct. 15, 2022, students and staff of Strath Haven High School were packed into the gymnasium for the first indoor homecoming dance since the pandemic. Laced through the masses of bodies, feathers, and fedoras, a shared bond of heat and music linked all of the students together.
For freshman Sylvie Bergstrom, her first homecoming dance was one that she won’t forget.
“It’s a really fun experience for a lot of different people,” she said. “There were a lot of diverse groups.”
Despite the lively atmosphere of the night, Bergstrom could not help but notice the kids that may have been lingering on the outskirts of the room.
“I think a lot of people thought they were not popular enough or good enough to be dancing in the center with all of the cool people, so they were a little isolated,” Bergstrom said.
Homecoming Royalty senior Georgia Gianopulos also had a positive experience. She compared it to last year’s homecoming, which had taken place outside.
“I was wearing, like, sweatpants and a sweatshirt the whole time,” Gianopulos said, referring to last year’s homecoming.
This year’s dance made a better impression on Gianopulos.
“It was probably the best homecoming out of the three that I went to,” she said. “I kind of was just, like, living the moment.”
Gianopulos’s hopes that for the next homecoming the DJ sticks closer to the assigned playlist, and plays certain songs that will help students feel included.
“I feel more like 2010s Pop, because everyone knows those songs,” she said.
The achievements of this homecoming are in large part thanks to senior student council president, Aashna Pandey. She worked tirelessly to make this dance memorable for the seniors.
“I think this year it was completely different from last year just because of the planning. I felt like [last year’s homecoming] was very last minute, the DJ kind of handled everything,” Pandey said. “But this year, I think right from the start of the school year, I had to focus all of my attention on making sure there was a plan for the ticket sales, for T-shirts, because this is something that we haven’t done in the past three years.” — Aashna Pandey
The pressure was on to have this year’s homecoming make up for all of the lost time during the pandemic. But most of the pressure was pressure she put on herself.
“I had all these ideas in mind that I just had to keep in the back of my head and then make sure that they were executed properly and not in a chaotic way,” Pandey said. I tend to be an overachiever. I want to make sure other people like it.”
She believes that this challenge was one that helped her grow as a leader and an organizer.
“Once everything fell into place, I soon became very confident that it was all going to be okay. Like overall, everyone was so supportive in the process,” she said.
For the most part, people seem to agree with Bergstrom and Gianopulos. Pandey’s ambitions had not gone unnoticed by the students and staff of Strath Haven.
“So many people came up to me after homecoming and the pep rally talking about how it was one of the best assemblies they’ve seen, one of the best dances they’ve been to,” Pandey said. “I definitely put a lot of hard work into this, and I’m glad it paid off.”
