After weeks of planning by the freshman grade government, the fourth annual freshman lock-in was held on the night of Feb. 28. 90 members of the class of 2029 attended the event, which included dinner, snacks, basketball and other activities.
The freshman lock-in is a night that falls in the middle of the school year, where freshmen are “locked in” the school until midnight. The night is designed for freshmen to socialize with friends and with classmates they don’t usually interact with. Freshman dean and biology teacher Melissa Andrew said that the night is planned to give students the ability to have free time, which allows students to get the most out of it.
“I think that unstructured social time for students is amazing,” Andrew said. “Because you guys are very scheduled kids, and I think that being able to socialize at a time when you don’t have something you have to do opens up your relationships and increases grade bonding.”
The grade government spent their meetings planning a night that would allow students to participate in various activities. Freshman and co-class president Jake Forseter said that it was hard to ensure each activity had proper timing during the planning process. For example, Forseter said that it was difficult to play a movie while there were other activities happening, such as karaoke and cookie decorating. Despite this conflict, they played the movie throughout the night which ended up working out perfectly.
“In our grade meetings, one thing that we focused on was kind of sectioning out the schedule so that people could go to many different activities, and then trying to figure out which activities people would want,” Forseter said.
Freshmen arrived at school after Shabbat at 8 p.m. and started the night with Havdalah. After that, Andrew explained how the night’s schedule would go and led the freshmen to a pizza dinner.
Following dinner, the freshmen had many options for activities. Many students began at the basketball tournament, which was one of the biggest highlights of the night, according to freshman Miri Silverman. Teams of three faced each other in a bracket tournament until freshmen AJ Salz, Adam Stillman and Ethan Rabinovitch won the boys bracket, while freshmen Evy Grunberger, Mae Stein and Silverman won for the girls.
“I think people probably enjoyed the basketball and the sports the most,” Silverman said. “And I really liked basketball because I won the three-on-three tournament.”
As the basketball tournament came to an end, students went to the Exhibition Hall to watch a movie. The room was filled with students singing and dancing to “Moana” songs. At the same time, karaoke was taking place in the cardo. Groups of two took turns picking out songs and performing them for their peers.
According to Forseter, The whole night gave the freshmen opportunities to expand their circles and try new things. Forseter said everyone was smiling throughout the night, which made the grade government feel proud about the hard work they put into the night.
“The lock-in is a very special opportunity,” Forseter said. “I think future freshman grades should all be very excited for it.”
