Exonians Celebrate E/a Spirit Week

By ARYAN AGARWAL, ERIN HAN, ELLINA KIM, JAYDEN OH, and DIYA SANDEEP

In the week leading up to the 2024 E/a games at Andover on Saturday, Nov. 9, the Academy catalyzed school spirit through themed days and the traditional pep rally and assembly, making sure that it was Exeter red that coursed through everyone’s veins on game day. On Friday, the Academy community bled red, building momentum for the thrilling competition and victories that would follow the next day.

This ignition of campus-wide school spirit was the result of much preparation from student organizers and performers across campus. 

Groups like Big Red Zone, POMS, Student Council, and a diverse number of dance groups made the events exciting and full of school spirit. From the fall formal, to the bonfire, to the pep rally, the weeks leading up to E/a are always a highly anticipated part of fall term. 

Senior Dylan Schwab, a co-head of Big Red Zone, the school spirit club on campus, shared, “Over the course of the term, BRZ and StuCo have been in conversation about the plans for about all of the events leading up to E/a day.”

He continued, “Overall, I thought both spirit week and EA were a success and a great time for everyone. My main highlight from the week, however, was the pep rally. Being able to go from a time where I was a prep in that crowd so excited for the day ahead to one of the leaders/performers of the night was a truly special experience.”

He concluded, “The main thing that I hope students took away from these events was that even though Exeter is a highly academic school with a large population of very achieving students, we can still have fun and do stupid things that other kids do like make a fool of ourselves on stage, or wear dumb clothes, etc.”

Leading up to their performances at Friday’s assembly or pep rally, the student dance groups spent hours of rehearsals sharpening their performances. “We started rehearsing around the end of September and we met every Sunday for around one to two hours to learn the dance and formations,” said upper Lana Wu, a member of the Imani dance group.

She continued, “I really hope that we brought up the energy. We were the last performance at pep rally which meant we had to end it on a good note and the whole point of pep rally is to get everyone excited and ready for E/a.”

Lower Carrie-Ann Chan, a member of Beats of Asia (BOA), POMs, as well as Imani, echoed similar hopes. “I hope that they got a taste of dance at Exeter, felt hyped, and just enjoyed the performance.” 

She added, “I found it really nice when people screamed my name, and it really made me feel like a part of a strong community. I can’t wait till the next E/a where we will be able to perform more hopefully.”

Upper Sophie Yu, a co-head of BOA noted the group’s preparation, as well as her hopes for the performers themselves. “We usually meet two times a week, once on Wednesday and once on Saturday. What we also like to do sometimes though is meet in very small groups right before our performance so that we can give ‘roses and buds.’ Roses are some compliments and things you like, and then buds are some other things we think that we can work on or that we need to clarify before we go on stage.”

Yu continued, “The ultimate goal is that people had a lot of fun, and they felt confident on stage. I want people to just feel themselves when they perform—kind of like how I felt when I first joined BOA.”

Prep Sarah Hao commented on her experience with E/a activities this year. “I felt that it was really hype. I really liked it. The student coordinators did great and I actually wasn’t expecting it to be of such high quality.” She also said that she “was really excited. There was a lot of anticipation building up.”

Hao continued regarding her favorite event:  “I loved the Pep Rally. It was really energetic and it felt like we really had that school spirit going on and it was fun watching everyone perform. All that hard work paid off.” 

Every year, E/a requires an incredible surge of school spirit to revive the strength of tradition which goes back over a century. Fall 2024 will be one to remember for the ages with all types of student activities across campus and beyond.