ASB reflects on Spirit Week

The Catalyst sat down with members of the Associated Student Body (ASB) to reflect on the events of Spirit Week. 

The Catalyst (TC): How did Spirit Week go overall? 

Amelia Alanjian (AA): I think it went really well. It was a little stressful at first because we had a lot to get done to prepare for it, but I really liked the costumes [and students] Spirit Week ideas, and everyone was super creative. Especially on Celebrity Day that was really funny.

TC: Are you happy with how Spirit Week one and how the class has participated? 

AA: I’m very happy with the Spirit Week days obviously because I helped change them. But I wish there was like a little more participation and I know a lot of students used it as a day of just like free dress which is not supposed to be it’s supposed to be like a way for students get excited for Halloween, but overall I think like the people who did participate went all out and it was really fun to see. 

TC: Can you tell me a little bit about the planning process as well 

AA: We plan Spirit Week in August. We had a meeting and we planned it then. So we came up with [the themes] a while ago, and then obviously we had to change some stuff around because for Babies vs. Boomers, we didn’t want people wearing inappropriate [items]. So we had to change that around a little bit. But then we had to make the posters which hung in the hallway, which took a really long time. And we had to put up the bulletin board which also took a while so it was a lot of work. But I think it went really well. 

TC: What is your favorite memory from the week? 

AA: Celebrity day and just getting to dress up like who we wanted to dress up like, and I know seeing a lot of people just like Guy Fieri was really funny. Or was it Mr. Rojas was Gordon Ramsay that day and it was just really funny. I love when teachers participate. That’s so funny to me.

TC: How did Spirit Week go overall?

Caitlynn Reynolds (CR): Overall I’d say Spirit Week went really well and it seems that the rest of the Notre Dame community was really satisfied with what went down. And I’m really happy with all of it. 

TC: Can you tell me a little bit about the planning process of Spirit Week and what went into it? 

CR: We started planning Spirit Week, probably around August, right as school was starting because we knew it’d be like a super long process. And it was a whole brainstorming thing. We had probably 10, 15 different ideas that we had to choose from. And from there, we got input from the rest of the student council and narrowed it down to what we thought everyone would enjoy doing throughout the week. So I’d say it was definitely a long process, but in the end, we were able to come up with things that everyone seemed to enjoy. 

TC: Do you have something that you’re most proud of from the week or a favorite memory? 

CR: I’m definitely most proud of all the content that was added and I worked really hard to make all the TikToks to promote for our social media. One of my favorite memories that was really embarrassing was when I went to my Tri-School Business Class dressed up as an old grandpa. I wanted to show my dedication to Spirit Week, so I think it was worth it and hopefully everyone forgets about it. 

TC: How did Spirit Week go overall? 

Zeina Zumot (ZZ): I think it went very well. I saw a lot of participation. And I think everybody had fun.

TC: What was the hardest part of planning Spirit Week? Did you face any challenges? 

ZZ: I think the hardest part of planning Spirit Week was the fact that it might have gotten canceled. Planning was pretty easy. It was just the rally that took the longest.

TC: Can you talk a little bit about why Spirit Week was almost canceled?

ZZ: There was some disrespect and vandalism to the property of Notre Dame. I think that that is something that we could have avoided because we all are adults or close to that and I think we all know better. I was happy to see that people changed how they were acting and we got to have our fun activities back.

TC: Did you see a specific costume that was your favorite?

ZZ: Sophia Grace and Rosie, [done by] Francesca Arbelaez and Olivia Caron. 

TC: How do you think Spirit Week went overall? 

Kassie Hickson (KH): I think it [went really well]. I was really impressed to see everyone’s involvement and all classes seem to be super excited and spirited all week.

TC: Did any theme turn out differently than you had planned or anticipated? 

KH: No, I actually think they all turned out kind of as we anticipated.

TC: Did you face any challenges in planning? 

KH: We definitely had a lot of ideas that the administration didn’t back because they didn’t fall within our dress codes and stuff like that. We really wanted to do Anything But a Backpack and PJ [day is] always popular, but we since we couldn’t do those specific ones, we decided to make ones that were similar enough. So like with the senior citizens and the baby’s day it was kind of like a makeshift pajama day.