By Christina Lu ’17, Staff Writer

Revolution Week is one of the most integral components of Newark Academy’s proactive and energetic culture. As its name suggests, Revolution Week is a five-day-long event that focuses on a wide range of themes, spanning from social justice and education issues, to medical and environmental issues.  It provides every Newark Academy student, organization, and club with the opportunity to take action by getting involved with and learning more about important topics that are interesting to them.

Revolution Week began in Spring 2015, under the leadership of previous Student Council President Matt Thekkethala ‘15.  Matt dreamt that he “Was at school, and everyone was yelling. Literally every word everyone said was impassioned and loud.” Matt named this vision the “Day of Fury,” an idea that stuck with him and drove him to “Do something new that’s never been done before at NA.” When Matt brought the idea to the Student Council, “Day of Fury” evolved into “Week of Fury,” which was ultimately renamed Revolution Week. Matt’s vision? To “Unite NA through causes and initiatives that we’re all individually and collectively passionate about, and to prove  that we are capable of coming up with new, revolutionary ideas to make our world a better place.” It’s safe to say that Revolution Week was successful in uniting NA – during Revolution Week 2015, the Newark Academy student body rallied around the themes of Education, Medicine, Homelessness, Environment, and Social Justice, excited to make a change.

Since then, Revolution Week has grown in both size and spirit, with more students, clubs, and organizations getting involved every year. Although Revolution Week was run by the Student Council in 2015, in 2016 it was run by Ms. Galvin and a group of dedicated students known as the Revolution Week Steering Committee. The week’s themes became Social Justice, Health, the Environment, and Celebrate! – with the whole week united under the common motto: “Learn! Act! Celebrate!” Almost 20 Newark Academy clubs and organizations were involved in the creation of Revolution Week. Not only did these clubs organize numerous events, such as the Asian Diversity Club’s thought-provoking Origami Race Cards: Exploring Asian American Identity project, but also they created installations, such as the Human Right Club’s “Syrian Refugee Crisis” information display. In addition, several clubs and organizations held discussions to reflect on the themes of Revolution Week.

In the weeks leading up to this year’s Revolution Week, Ms. Galvin and the new Steering Committee are working hard to make the events as engaging, invigorating, and thought-provoking as ever. This year’s working motto is “Breaking Boundaries to Build Communities. “The difference between this year and last year…” notes Jocelyn Tolpin ‘17, who has been a Steering Committee member for two years. Revolution Week is important to NA because “more than anything, it is a basis for different clubs and different people to carry out their ideas and events in a way that the entire community can get involved. I think by the end of Revolution Week, everyone who was involved feels a sense of accomplishment that they managed to do so much in such a short time span.”

Rohan Bendre ‘17, another Steering Committee member for Revolution Week this year, added, “I have one goal: to broaden our school’s horizons and remind us that there are worldwide issues that command our attention and efforts as thoughtful global citizens.” Revolution Week strives to engage the NA student body in an unifying way, and every student should make an effort to get involved this year.

Vive la Révolution!