Yesterday afternoon, freshmen filed into Spirito Hall to listen to instructions for the freshman “Start Strong” scavenger hunt. Upon entering, they received goodie bags filled with candy and sat with their Foothill Intervention, Reinforcement, and Enrichment (FIRE) crew.

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Yesterday afternoon, freshmen filed into Spirito Hall to listen to instructions for the freshman “Start Strong” scavenger hunt.

Upon entering, they received goodie bags filled with candy and sat with their Foothill Intervention, Reinforcement, and Enrichment (FIRE) crew. Each group had a poster that they had previously made in their FIRE classroom. One was inspired by Ventura’s beaches, while another depicted a dragon with Foothill colors.

The scavenger hunt included running around campus to find various landmarks and answering questions about the school and staff such as “How many kids does Mr. Bova have?” and “Go to the I-Pod. How many computers are in the I-Pod?” Students also were also asked to take selfies with teachers and post them on social media with the hashtag “#SS2019.”

Once a team had all of the questions answered, they went to the Black Box where they would “sign their future,” represented by a graduation gown. A prize awaited the first team to finish.

Advisor Anthony Unchangco pumped up the crowd for their hunt. He explained that they wanted to “continue to kick off the school year strong with our ‘Start Strong’ freshman rally today.” A self-proclaimed “chief fun-inator,” Unchangco was attempting to “inspire and encourage others” by making sure that the freshmen had “an awesome and amazing time because they are all awesome and amazing people.”

He also introduced the freshmen to some of the staff running the event.

Foothill teachers Connie Carr and Kristen “Pelfinator” Pelfrey were the new freshman advisors and took on leadership roles for the rally. Both Pelfrey and Carr teach Education in the Digital Age (EDA), a traditionally freshman class. According to Pelfrey, their goal was “to build on the work the previous ninth grade advisors did.”

Once Unchangco released them to get started, students began running through the halls eager to complete the scavenger hunt.

When they were done, every FIRE group had their photo taken and received some baked goods to celebrate.

Many freshmen felt better prepared for the upcoming school year by the end of the rally.

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Freshman Mark Spencer’s favorite part was “running around and taking pictures with random people.” He felt that it prepared him for his high school career “because [he] got to see more parts of the school.”

Freshman Abbey Bufford reflected on her experience during the scavenger hunt.

“It was kind of crazy but exciting. I feel like I got to know my FIRE group better, which is good.”

………….

“Our start strong rally is to get the freshmen ready and on a good track for the school year. Today, we just really want to see them interact with other individuals, other students, other teachers, other staff, maybe that they would not normally on a regular day, and that really gets them excited about their high school career,” Unchangco said.

Overall, the event organizers felt that it was a successful rally because they had accomplished what they had been hoping for.

Junior Whitney Ellis, Start Strong coordinator, explained the ultimate goal of the Start Strong rally was to get freshmen excited for their next four years and to “congratulate them for just going through the first couple weeks of high school successfully.”

#SS2019

https://storify.com/FTHSDragonPress/freshman-start-stong-rally