Start Your Engines: Seniors Race to Help Kickoff the 2024-25 School Year

On the first day of school, high school students and faculty gathered in the High School gym for our annual celebratory welcome back assembly. This isn’t just any assembly though. The senior run-in tradition is a prime example of how the students at GDS are frequently charged with creative team-building, sometimes purely in the name of celebration and fun. The energy is infectious. The good cheer is unforgettable!

 A hype video prepared the audience for what was to come and then a handful of the high school seniors arrived in matching t-shirts and waving checkered flags for a race-car themed grand entrance! Racers jumped into homemade, mini soap box-like cars (wheeled boards with cardboard surrounds) and “raced’ around the gym, pulled on ropes by fellow seniors. Following closely behind, the remaining senior class entered in a blurred mad dash of black and red and checkered flags, all to the roars of their bleacher-seated lower classmen.

Head of School Russell Shaw followed the antics with a warm welcome speech, in which he began “...[T]hough it is only the first day, school is a place of learning,” and he wanted to see if the seniors were ready. He then proceeded to ask them seemingly random questions such as: “What is the smallest square that can be written in two consecutive squares?... What are the 89th and 90th digits of Pi? … How old was Lawrence Bragg when he won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1915? … The atomic number of manganese? … What number president was William McKinley? … What day in October is World Pasta Day recognized? Each time, the senior crowd answered, “twenty five” followed by loud cheers. Then Russell led the seniors in welcoming each of the other high school classes back to school.

In the words of High School Principal Yom Fox, students, this year is yours to explore, question, and grow, to bring your curiosity, passions, and even uncertainties. Here’s to a great 2024-25 school year!

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