Students lounge in their pajamas, waiting to join the lunchtime Zoom that Leadership is putting on for Spirit Week. Ready to see familiar faces, students flood the call, excited to greet their peers. Each day is a new theme. Whether it’s dressing up in summer gear or as your favorite movie character, Leadership is integrating fun into student’s shelter-in-place experience. Standing by their dressers, students decide how they will incorporate their own touch throughout each costume. 

Due to unfortunate circumstances, Leadership is working from their homes to plan events and activities for students and staff to participate in. Though the struggle of getting acquainted with unfamiliar habits is difficult, it still leaves the classes optimistic. “Leadership has run a few events with mixed success. We really have a live-in the question attitude and are ready to go back to the drawing board when we need to as we are truly pioneers in this odd scenario. However, the students are trying,” Leadership Director Jeremy Foltz stated. “We have had a Spirit Week, Kindness Week, live Zoom bake-offs, Sophomores of the Week, senior college reveals on Instagram and other activities. We are in the middle of Teacher Appreciation Week currently. Next week is Senior Week, and we plan on having a digital version on May 15 of the Goodbye Rally. The new Rally Leaders will be revealed, and seniors will have an opportunity to say goodbye to the teachers. The week of May 18 will be an awards week.”

Leadership’s various commissions are taking on new roles during quarantine. The community service commission’s duty is to make quarantine more enjoyable by suggesting exciting activities to do and ways to volunteer. “We have been trying our hardest to reach out to the 1,245 students. The community service commission is trying its hardest to create a flyer talking about ways to help out the community during this weird time! It’s hard to know how to help the students, but we are trying our hardest,” sophomore Anna Crinks said.

While most students are at home, receiving some normality from the leadership class makes quarantine less mundane. “I think all the emails and activities that Leadership has planned and are going to plan have done a great job keeping all of us connected. It’s nice to be reminded of Miramonte a little bit,” freshman Taryn Pearce said. Leadership’s work  to keep the school community whole helps make quarantine and schoolwork feel less tiresome and isolating. 

Leadership students believe in the silver lining of situations, and won’t let school closure keep them from fulfilling their duty to the Miramonte community. Although there’s a lack of students and staff filling Miramonte, there’s no reason to take away the spirit that surges through the community. Without the leadership class helping us stay connected, it would be much harder to have virtual interactions with our peers. The attitude that fills the leadership classroom is demonstrated virtually. Leadership tried to make every minute at Miramonte this year enjoyable, whether it was music during lunch on the quad, or the informing morning announcements, their joyful presence filled the Miramonte campus and now this enthusiasm is being demonstrated virtually.