Those who signed were Priya Gangadharan ‘23, Will Murray ‘23, and Preston Sanderville ‘23. Gangadharan will be continuing her cross country career at Yale University, Murray at Samford University, and Sanderville at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“I feel so grateful to have made it this far. I was able to sign earlier in the season but this one’s extra special because I was able to do it with some of my two closest friends, Will and Preston,” Gangadharan ‘23 said. “I’ve been training and racing with them for many years now, and they’ve just supported me so much. It feels great to be able to do this with them by my side.”

The event began with heartfelt speeches by the team’s coaching staff, acknowledging their hard work and dedication, followed by a few words from the players, the signing, and ended with picture opportunities for players with their family members and teammates.

International Baccalaureate (IB) students and faculty faced off in a dodgeball tournament on Friday, Dec. 2. The game held high stakes: if IB seniors won the tournament, their Extended Essay(EE) deadline would be pushed back. The EE, which was originally due on the morning of Dec 5., is a 4000-word research paper that IB seniors have been working on for months. IB student organizers decided to incentivize the games to provide fun competition for seniors.

“It was super fun, except for [the faculty] getting beat by a lot,” IB Coordinator Ms. Christin Key said. “The students wanted to do it; they did it at [the Grateful Gathering] and they thought it would be really fun to have a game against the teachers, especially with the EE deadline at stake.”

First, four teams of students played against each other to determine the first place student team, who then played against the faculty team. The audience cheered as students and teachers faced off, with the students successfully winning. Despite winning, and the EE deadline therefore being pushed back, both teams wanted to continue, going on to compete for the best out of three rounds. In each successive game, students continued their win streak, heightening the excitement of their win.

“I thought it was really fun, because we definitely needed to push back the EE deadline,” IB senior Allen Garcia ‘23 said. “I [had] just failed my math test so I needed to take some anger out on the staff, [which] was a big contributing factor. [We] beat the teachers!”

While the postponed deadline for the EE is yet to be announced, it has been determined for a date after the break. IBSO will host another event, the IB Ball, on Dec. 15.

UkuleYAY Club held its first meeting of the year during Flex on Friday, Sep. 23 in Ms. Julianne Knott’s classroom. During the meeting, new and returning members got to know each other and started discussing possible meeting dates and times, as well as levels of experience, song knowledge, and musical preferences. To account for a lack of ukuleles, club members used Boomwhackers, a type of plastic percussion instrument, to still be able to play together.

“I think it’s a fun experience to learn a new instrument that I’ve never played before or had contact with before,” UkuleYAY Club member Levy Nause ‘23 said. “I’ve never played an instrument with threads before because I’m in orchestra, so I think [this club] is a good place to start to expand my music knowledge.”

UkuleYAY club will continue to hold meetings in Ms. Knott’s portable throughout the year, with future meeting dates and times yet to be determined. UkuleYAY Club is open to all, regardless of experience.