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Sitting on a picnic blanket, Aubrey Tipps ’26 writes a letter to her future self. Letter writing was one of the activities set up by Student Council, and these messages would be given back to the students at the end-of-year event, Senior Sunset.
Courtesy of Aaron Yeh
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Decked out in coordinated outfits, seniors Sarah Jung, Karen Chen, Dhiya Balajee, and Sanjana Ashlesh pose for photos against the glow of the sunrise. Senior Sunrise was a popular photo opportunity, especially to display matching outfits.
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Crouching, Neel Chaudri ’26 takes silly photos of his friends as sunlight streams across the grass. Many recorded funny videos or took photos to look back on to memorialize their graduating year.
As stars began fading against the lightening sky, seniors gathered at dawn on Friday, Aug. 29, to commemorate the start of their graduation year with Senior Sunrise, an annual tradition hosted by Student Council (StuCo).
Students began filing into the field around 6:30 a.m. to catch the sunrise, holding picnic blankets or coffee as they took on the early morning event. Others came a little later, often biking, stopping for breakfast, or carpooling with their fellow students. As the crowd grew and the sun inched higher, seniors took to setting up tripods or comparing digital cameras.
“How I got to the event was especially memorable to me, as a few friends and I biked together in the early morning hours for a little adventure,” Jining Liu ‘26 said. “It was great getting to meet with my friends outside of school time to mark the start of this special year.”
Scattered across the grass near the Westwood Tennis Courts, the Class of 2026 enjoyed a variety of breakfast snacks and sentimental activities provided by StuCo. Whether it was playing with a parachute, writing letters to their future selves, or recording transition videos, seniors took full advantage of the opportunity to indicate the beginning of their final year.
“I feel like Senior Sunrise was such a nostalgic morning, being with all my friends who I won’t see again at this time next year,” Grace Xiang ‘26 said. “It’s bittersweet since I’ll never get to be this young again, yet the moment’s captured in all the photos with my favorite people, [making] it one of the best memories.”
StuCo began preparing for this event in early August, ensuring the field’s availability, gathering food and parachute donations, and packing tables and paper for activity stalls. The organization worked to curate a fun environment that would pair with the end-of-year event, Senior Sunset. These two events are meant to represent students’ journeys and allow them to create lifelong memories before they graduate.
“Making sure we were on the same page about all of the details was sometimes a pain, but we eventually got it to work,” StuCo Event Photographer Reed Bassett ‘28 said. “StuCo had to make sure the correct posts were sent out to remind everyone and that everyone brought what was assigned to them, so it was like everyone was a piece of the puzzle.”
As a symbolic gathering, Senior Sunrise is meant to bring together seniors from all across the grade. For most, the past three years of high school have been wrought with trials and hardships. This event gave seniors a chance to relax and reflect upon the hard work and fortitude that brought them this far.
“Senior Sunrise unexpectedly felt like a moment of reflection for me,” Aaron Yeh ‘26 said. “I thought about all the moments of my primary and secondary schooling that led up to that point, and all the people who helped me get there. It’s memorable because of how much it represents that step of starting my senior year, and in a sense, it represents the beginning of the end of high school.”
![Intensely concentrated, seniors Ari June, Christine Kim, and Sahana Suryanarayan collectively paint a portrait of Charli XCX's face. While painting, they shared stories about past experiences and bonded over similar interests in music. "I've definitely grown as a collaborator because in NAHS [National Art Honor Society], you're all growing together as artists and collaborators," Suryanarayan said. "The portrait helped me make room for others while painting."](https://westwoodhorizon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Edit_2025-09-02_NAHSMeeting_SophiaCortes-4-1200x800.jpg)
