Community Day, an annual Upper School tradition, offers students a temporary respite from rigorous academics and brings them together to celebrate the school’s diverse community. With this year’s event coming up on Feb. 11, The Vanguard spoke with Community Day Lead Organizers Sydney Francis, Izzy Doricent and Ethan Ortega (all ’26) to get a behind-the-scenes view of their preparations.       —Vartan Arakelian ’26

What is unique about Community Day this year?

Izzy: Our theme for this year is Outside the Box. We’ve seen this theme at assemblies, where people have come in and talked about their experiences outside of the school. During Community Day, we hope to fuel these conversations where people can talk about what’s meaningful to them.

Sydney: Community Day is one of those unique experiences at school with community bonding and school spirit. A lot of the time, at school, we don’t have opportunities to relax and enjoy our time together. Especially for us seniors, this year, the event is going to be very special.

Ethan: It’s a time to relax and debrief. It was a very eventful year, so we should take some time, look back on it and converse with new people or your friends in a safe environment.

What are your primary goals as organizers?

Izzy: The biggest goal right now is getting as many workshops as possible. We want everyone to engage in things they want to do and not have the activities be something we’re forcing people to do.

Sydney: Last year, there were complaints about the conga line during assembly, or people didn’t like how much time we had in between different blocks. We need to figure out how to use time wisely and have the most fun while doing so.

Ethan: We want to create enough space for everybody to have their own time and create or attend a workshop of their choice.

What has worked in the past, and what are you hoping to improve?

Sydney: The variety of workshops has been good in the past. During Community Day, you can do whatever you want: a game, arts and crafts, cooking. One thing we need to improve is transition time and making sure time is not wasted.

Izzy: Another thing we’re working on is having more people engage in the assembly activities. We want to get everyone to participate and contribute.

Ethan: I agree. We want to have people either playing the games or cheering on their classmates to create a competitive aspect to it.

How has working on Community Day deepened your relationship with each other as a group?

Izzy: We have both underclassmen and upperclassmen in the leadership group, and that opportunity to collaborate across grades has been beneficial to all of us.

Sydney: I agree with Izzy. It’s nice seeing how all our different ideas can come together to create the best day possible.

Ethan: Interacting with people across grades has also helped us form a more complete understanding of the preferences of the school community as a whole.

What have you learned from developing this day for the entire school?

Sydney: I’ve learned that planning takes time, but as long as you’re well organized and allot enough space to make mistakes and have discourse, everything will turn out just fine.

Izzy: Open-mindedness, as well. All of us have these different ideas, so how can they all interact and turn into something better?

Ethan: In planning, there’s room for controlled chaos. It gets hectic at times, but at the end you come together for a consensus.