As first semester nears its end, Student Body President Anthony Zhao (12) and Student Body Vice President Andy Schulte (12) have developed new plans alongside the senior officers to boost school spirit and student engagement with STUCO.

Both Zhao and Schulte recognize the lack of school spirit at Ladue, and have made it a priority of STUCO to fix. However, they also understand that organizing something a majority of students will participate in will be a difficult task. 

“It’s sometimes hard to organize stuff, because you have to also worry about who’s going to do it, who’s not going to do it, and the rule of thumb is that the more people that do it, the better,” Schulte said. 

Catered toward the entire student body, a new winter spirit week was scheduled to be released soon to celebrate the season, with themed days of winter outfits and movies during lunch. 

“People seeing their whole school doing the same thing brings everyone together,” Zhao said. “And we’re doing that right now with a winter spirit week that will also have activities during lunch and themes of dress, like wearing all white or winter gear.” 

For seniors, STUCO has come up with several ideas to make this year special for them. An idea circulating through the discussion of senior representatives is a field day.  

“Something that we were talking about was doing a field day in the spring for seniors, and each team is your elementary school,” Schulte said.

Additionally, complementing the yearly senior sunrise, a new senior sunset event was proposed to mark the conclusion of the school year, along with several other senior-specific suggestions.

“We have a senior sunrise, so we’re just hoping we can do a senior sunset so we can all start and end the year in the same way,” Zhao said. “Also, we’re thinking of having a senior prom. It’s not really a prom, but it’s where you invite your parents and you have a little dinner.”

STUCO’s goal to increase school spirit has been constant following COVID-19. With the new traditions STUCO has been working on and implementing, they hope to build a strong foundation for future growth in participation and community. 

“Every person counts, and people seeing other people participate creates a chain reaction,” Zhao said. “And then, more people will want to participate in these fun activities that the school can do. So hopefully, in a couple years, our school spirit could be back to amazing.”