By Noah Gezahegn ’25, Guest Writer

Spirit Week’s Tug-of-War Competition. (Photo courtesy of Newark Academy)

Were philosopher Friedrich Nietzche to stroll through the halls of Newark Academy today, he would proclaim, “School spirit is dead, and we have killed it.” There is a noticeable absence of school spirit at NA; many people, including myself, feel as if there is little enthusiasm within our school community. You know there’s a problem when students are begged and forced to stay at the Homecoming Dance. But, why? Why is school spirit declining? Is the blame on the administration? School Council? Students? I say all of us.

It’s important to realize that the blame does not fall on one singular group or person, but rather on the entirety of the Newark Academy community. It doesn’t matter how well the school organizes an event if the students are uninterested in engaging. Similarly, it doesn’t matter how engaged students are if there is nothing worth the engagement.

So, what are the causes of this general apathy? Firstly, some of this disengagement comes down to the administration and School Council’s unwillingness to let certain traditions go: the boogie-down dance during Spirit Week, for example, is more cringeworthy than anything else. Our “We are… NA” chant is frankly uncreative. Our Fall Pep Rally, instead of hyping up our fall athletes, was plagued by speakers that weren’t loud enough, a hard-to-follow ping-pong match, and an underwhelming reveal of the Spirit Week winner. I don’t say this to diminish the amount of time and effort that goes into planning and organizing these events, nor am I critiquing the people behind these events; I think they have quite the difficult task ahead of them, and it’s incredibly hard to find the best approach. However, I am critiquing the absence of change and progress. There is no doubt that upholding our school traditions is important; however, time necessitates change. The Spirit Week model has been relatively unchanged during my seven years here, which would be fine if there were consistent engagement. The same can be said for pep rallies.

I had the chance to talk with Max Biezin ’25, a member of the School Council, and he expressed his disappointment in the current state of school spirit: “I think school spirit at NA could be better,” he said, “I think we sometimes lack spirit at artistic and athletic events.” He also stated that the NA upper school community could be stronger especially when compared to the middle school: “I think once we reach the upper school, we’re no longer that tightly bound community that I’ve seen in the middle school.” He added that he felt that the School Council has done a good job at planning and holding events; however, he stated that better communication between students and the Council would allow for students to better enjoy these events. In terms of what can be better, Max commented that the student body can do a better job of approaching events with enthusiasm and an open mind. He also conceded that the School Council doesn’t always execute their events as well as they hope.

Secondly, there’s such a large focus on athletics and School Council events that we often forget what makes NA such a special space: its strength in many areas, including the arts. NA is not a large public school with a winning football team that we can corral behind, and we should not act as if we are. What we do have is talented creative thinkers, actors, singers, dancers, visual artists, and world-renowned jazz musicians (we have the best high school jazz band in the country!). Yet, there’s nowhere near as much emphasis on our arts as there is on our athletics. Vihaan Jetley ’25, editor-in-chief of the Polymnian Yearbook, drew attention to the lack of representation of the arts in our yearbook: “I’ve added so many more pages this year dedicated to the arts. Over the years, representation of the arts has been steadily declining in the yearbook.” Vihaan, who’s also a member of the Chameleon Jazz Band, pointed out that Chameleon, which won the Essentially Ellington Jazz Competition last spring and has won the state championship 13 years in a row, has never had a dedicated page in the yearbook. He also pointed out that theater productions, like the fall play and winter musical, entail time-commitments similar to sports, yet don’t receive comparable recognition from the students. Here, the student body, including myself, can do better. Only a fraction of NA students take the time to watch an evening choral or dance performance. Even fewer take the time to watch Chameleon perform at Brvsh Cul7ur3 in Teaneck. My point here is that we can do a better job of backing Newark Academy’s supremely talented artists, and we need to take pride in their talent and accomplishments. Engaging in and taking pride in all aspects of our community are essential to strengthening our school spirit and our shared identity as Newark Academy students. I encourage everyone to approach any drama, sports game, or performance as an opportunity to appreciate the diverse and multifaceted nature of the NA community.