Freshmen Fun Night at CTHS

WASILLA — The school year is already a fourth of the way gone. Students can now make it through a whole week without getting lost, forgetting their locker combinations or being confused by the schedule. But one thing they can’t say is how well they know their fellow classmates.

At Mat-Su Career and Technical High School, many students do not know each other prior to their freshman year. This is because CTHS is a district-wide school, with freshmen applying for admission from all over the Valley. Not every student who applies is granted admittance, so some students start at Tech without the friends they had all through elementary and middle school.

This year’s class of about 140 freshmen is the school’s largest. Also, locker distribution this year is determined by last name rather than by class, as it has been in previous years. This has, in part, caused social disconnect between the freshmen. Some say they have found it hard to create and cultivate social relationships with their fellow classmates. The staff and parents at Career Tech got together to try and remedy this issue, and what they came up with may just turn into a tradition.

They decided to create an event where the freshmen would be compelled to function outside of their comfort zone. Thus, Freshman Fun Night was born. After all, is there a better way to make friends than to have fun? A small fee gave them a chance to enjoy an inflatable obstacle course, dodge ball, basketball and a scavenger hunt. In randomly generated groups that were rotated on a regular basis, they also had the chance to make their own pizzas, decorate cookies and tie die T-shirts, which they got to take home at the end of the night.

More than half of the freshmen class attended the event, and the night was declared a success by the majority. CTHS teacher Kathy Kern says, “

“We saw lots of kids making those connections they might not have otherwise,” CTHS teacher Kathy Kern said.

Not only that, but many students have continued to develop friendships they cultivated during the event.

Besides the individual social benefits, there are other reasons an event like this is a good idea. The social connections a person makes during school encourage a better relationship with the school itself, creating more school spirit. CTHS already enjoys a small-town feel, but what will happen to that when the school expands and more kids are included? An event like Freshman Fun Night may very well be the solution that helps keep that small-town feel even as the school itself grows.

Anita Laulainen and Bryanna Pearce are seniors at Mat-Su Career and Technical High School.