By Danielle Sidi’14, Staff Writer

The room was full of worry and apprehension when upper school president, Nicole Andrzejewski ’13, admitted, “It won’t all get done if we don’t focus.” This has been the general mood of student council meetings throughout the course of the fall, a notoriously busy season. Heeding Andrzejewski’s advice and working hard under an endless amount of stress, the council has planned and successfully carried out numerous events for the fall of 2012.

The fall began with Student Council’s annual Spirit Week, although this year’s edition offered many changes from past years. In order to include alumni in the festivities, Spirit Week festivities were filmed and uploaded on to twitter. Since Spirit week’s purpose is to unite the community, involving the alumni enhanced that connection. Also, due to a transgression with the fire department, Newark Academy decided to stop decorating corridors for competition. Instead, each grade decorated plywood boards according to their themes. Thanks to these changes the council considered the week a success. Lauren Whelan ’14, an eleventh grade representative, said, “The participation in Spirit Week this year definitely increased. I think everyone enjoyed it and that is the true goal council has for the event”. Despite the changes, the result remained a constant, with the Class of 2013 winning their third victory in a row.

The week ended with Homecoming, a day where Newark Academy’s community came together to cheer on all the sports teams. Parents, students, teachers, coaches, and alumni all enjoyed the day. This year the crowds were joined by the Newark Academy Minuteman mascots, Sam Wolforth’13 and Chris Paolini’13. This support allowed the men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, and field hockey teams all to win their games. Lexi Katz ’14, a fan who attended many of the day’s events and noted the added enthusiasm, said, “It was a lot of fun to watch our teams win.”

One of Spirit Week’s goals is to get the community excited for student council events for the rest of the year. The council has put in countless hours organizing the upcoming Run for FOP. Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Sandy, the Council has rescheduled the run from November 3^rd to December 2^nd. The run is a cherished event at Newark Academy and has been unanimously voted for by the Council every year since Ian Cali ’08, an alum who has the disease, graduated five years ago. The student council is beginning to arrange an event in memory of Ms. Baccash, a former math teacher at Newark Academy who passed away in the spring of last year. The event will raise money and awareness for cancer research.

Fresh off the success of Spirit Week, the Council hopes that their hard work will lead to increased enthusiasm for upcoming events.