“Senior year for seniors, by seniors!” reads the @bxsciseniorcouncil Instagram bio. The Senior Council for the class of 2022 is bursting with excitement for more of their upcoming senior events, after an extremely successful first Senior Spirit Week, from October 18th through 22nd, 2021. 

Senior Council is an application-based elective, open to seniors and to junior representatives, who take charge of  organizing and hosting exclusive senior events. This year’s Senior Council is ecstatic to be back to in-person planning. 

The first senior event this year was Bronxtober Fest, which was held in the courtyard on Friday, October 22nd, 2021. With the help of NHS members, the Senior Council decorated the courtyard and set up a scavenger/pumpkin hunt and Halloween mask decorating station, among other activities, while distributing delicious food and beverages.

The event’s success can be greatly attributed to its enthusiastic Co-Chairs: Sam Pokorny ’22, Ava Kawamura ’22, Manruchi Padda ’22, and Kristen Ho ’22. When asked how the Senior Council enabled them to work as a team in planning Bronxtober Fest, Kawamura responded, “It’s our first event of the year, so it’s helped us all learn how to collaborate and effectively plan events!” Not only did they do an excellent job of curating a unique and engaging afternoon for seniors, but the four Co-Chairs were also extremely involved with the senior student body throughout the entire spirit week leading up to Bronxtober Fest. 

The week was filled with lots of school spirit from students, as many came to school in themed outfits. My personal favorite was country club day. From dressing up each day to highlighting other spirited seniors on the Senior Council instagram, the efforts of the Senior Council were appreciated by all. 

Despite how smoothly the event went, the Senior Council immediately got to work for Bronxtober Fest in order to remedy any hiccups in the event planning process with grace and efficiency. “​​One of the biggest challenges was logistics. Since we aren’t able to have any indoor events this year due to COVID-19 precautions, we have to reconfigure a lot of our events into outdoor events, and set up precautions so that we can all safely have fun together,” Pokorny said.

It was clear that Bronxtober Fest was just what the class of 2022 needed in order to boost their school spirit and to provide them with senior-bonding moments before the intensity of college applications kicked in. “Bronxtober Fest was a really great opportunity to bond with a lot of my friends and to spend time right before college application season. It was a very good event and it helped all of us to de-stress. I had so much fun!” Angelena Bougiamas ’22 said. Other seniors have commented that they genuinely enjoyed the different activities they were able to participate in at Bronxtober Fest: some favored the competitive scavenger hunt, while others adored cheering on their friends in the costume competition. Overall, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, indicating that the Senior Council is on the right track for future enjoyable events.

But the Senior Council is planning for more. They are already brainstorming plans for future events, such as Senior Movie Night, Homecoming, and most importantly, Prom! The Council is currently researching venues and catering options to make sure that the class of 2022 will have the most memorable and lively Prom night possible – especially after the hardships that they endured last year with remote learning and COVID-19. “I’m super excited to be planning Prom,” Pokorny said. “I think after the pandemic, we all need some sense of normalcy in our senior year.”

“I’m super excited to be planning Prom,” Pokorny said. “I think after the pandemic, we all need some sense of normalcy in our senior year,” said Sam Pokorny ’22.