StuCo Presents: Trivia Night

StuCo’s annual Trivia Night will be held on March 9 at 6:30 p.m. in East’s third floor classrooms as their first in-person event of the school year.

Earlier this year the 26 members of StuCo held virtual events like Bingo Night, but seeing everyone in-person at the annual Trivia Night will be an exciting experience for StuCo, according to Student Body President and senior Sophie Rice. They’ve tried to keep the student body engaged throughout the year by putting up holiday decorations and promoting at-home spirit weeks, but this will be the first time they host an event in-person.

Senior Isa Rogler has participated in the event for three years, always with Psychology teacher Brett Kramer as the sponsor for their team: the “Junction City Boiz.” Rogler is looking forward to the event, and the renewed sense of normalcy that the event will provide.

“The thing I’m most looking forward to is just having an event at the school that’s in-person with different groups of people,” Rogler said. “I’m also really excited just to see the team again. It’s fun to do trivia, but I think what I enjoy more is getting hyped up with the team, making up chants, dressing up and seeing everybody else dress up — just enjoying the whole atmosphere of the event.”

The event, typically held in the cafeteria, has been moved to the fifth floor, where each team will be in a separate classroom while on a Webex with the rest of the teams to compete. There are eight rounds of 10 questions — each team will fill out forms with their answers that will be collected by StuCo members and checked for accuracy.

Although Trivia Night this year has modifications like moving teams to separate classrooms, no longer serving food or drinks and announcing updates on answers over the intercom, Rice feels it will remain an enjoyable experience.

While students and StuCo members like Rice are disappointed they can’t hold all the events and projects the way they would in a normal year, missing out on things like the Lancer Day speech and setting up for dances, they’re excited to finally hold a StuCo event in-person.

“I’m really excited because last year when I ran for this position, I didn’t really plan for a pandemic,” Rice said. “The things [StuCo execs] traditionally do were canceled, and a lot of the events that you look forward to like the dances or graduation, nobody really knows what’s happening with them. So it’s nice to be able to do something.”

StuCo has attempted to hold in-person events and activities before, like a Bingo Night and live streaming the crowning of homecoming and sweetheart royalty, but the SMSD administration vetoed their ideas due to COVID, leaving Rice and other StuCo members especially excited to find out Trivia Night passed the guidelines.

With the option to register five students and one teacher per team, the signup for Trivia Night was a Google Form located on the StuCo Instagram, @sme_stuco. The cost for registration is $25 per team. Similar to previous years, the winning team gets half of the money collected, and the other half goes to the charity of their choice. As of March 3, nine teams are signed up for Trivia Night.

StuCo has tried to keep as much going while virtual as possible, like holding class officer elections and handing out candy to teachers and students, and are glad to be able to provide the in-person event to students and teachers alike, according to StuCo sponsor Hannah Pence.

“There’s several teachers that really enjoy it,” Pence said. “It’s just another fun way to interact with students. I’m involved in StuCo and Link Crew, so I can interact with students outside the classroom. But if you don’t do a lot of that, it’s nice to be able to see them in a different environment and let them see you in a different environment.”

Rogler agrees and sees the event as a great way to form a bond with teachers outside of the classroom.

“It causes a closeness that you can’t really get just in a typical classroom,” Rogler said. “This way, we’re all together on a team. We’re all on the same level. And I feel like that brings a whole different dynamic of almost more of a friendship than just a teacher and student relationship. So I think it definitely brings us closer to whatever teacher you work with because you’re just communicating more with them as a person instead of them as a teacher.”

Rice is excited to be able to provide a fun opportunity for the student body and teachers, especially during the pandemic.

“I just hope that people who do [sign up] have fun,” Rice said. “I think we all kind of deserve it this year.”

Although this is the first in-person event taking place for StuCo, Rice and Pence are hopeful there are many more to come. There are no set plans currently, but StuCo is hoping to hold an outdoor dog trot event on the track and find smaller ways to engage the student body like providing treats for a sporting event or setting up competitions with other SMSD schools.

Until then, Pence and StuCo members hope to provide an event students and teachers can all enjoy.

“It’s neat because it’s something totally different than dances or the can drive that we do,” Pence said. “And it’s truly for fun. Yes, we end up giving some money to charity out of it, but that’s just kind of a bonus. It brings a different crowd of students. I like that it gets a teacher involved with them. And just harmless good fun is nice.”