Prefect Council organizes trip to Disneyland Park

Printed with permission of Issac Tiu

Illi Kreiz ’24, Isaac Tiu ’24, Hannah Carbunaru ’24, Angelina Sinclair ’24, Keira Haley ’24, Charlotte Newman ’24, Freelance Writer Davis Marks ’24 and Elise Fried ’24 pose in front Galaxy’s Edge.

Prefect Council organized a day trip to Disneyland for the Class of 2024 during a Flex Day on Feb. 2. Nearly 200 sopho- mores roamed Disneyland Park.

Sophomore Prefect Nyla Shelton ’24 said the council’s main goal in planning the trip was to make up for the two an- nual theme park excursions that the current sophomore class had to forgo as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Due to COVID-19, both the [eighth grade] Six Flags [Magic Mountain] and [ninth grade] Disneyland trips were canceled for current sophomores,” Shel-

ton said. “In scheduling this Disneyland trip, we hoped to create the opportunity for soph- omores to make up for the loss of these trips and have a great time bonding with the grade. Not only did a large majority of the grade attend, but everyone I’ve spoken to has said they had a great time.”

To protect the school com- munity, Prefect Council request- ed that students stay home if they experienced COVID-19 symptoms on the morning of the trip.

Savannah Mashian ’24 said the students’ opportunity to ex- plore the park together made the day more enjoyable.

“My favorite part about the trip was all the rides I got to go on and all the memories I made with my friends,” Mashian said. “It was definitely a good bond- ing experience and a great way to spend a Flex Day.”

Jacob Lutsky ’24 said the trip was a great bonding experience for the grade because it led his classmates to spend time with one another outside of school.

“I usually hate roller coasters, but I ended up going on some of them with my friends, and they ended up being super fun, [especially] Thunder Mountain and [the] Matterhorn Bobsleds,” Lutsky said. “I got to hang out with a bunch of my friends’ friends, which was nice.”

Lutsky said he considers the trip a success, and he said he appreciates the effort Prefect Council put into planning it.

“It was a really nice way to just forget about all the stress we have with school and go have free-ranged fun for a little while, especially because often the amount of [schoolwork] we have prevents us from doing activities like that regularly,” Lutsky said.

Isaac Tiu ’24, who entered the school in ninth grade, said the trip provided a meaningful way to bond with his peers.

“Being a new student to a fully online school was under- standably difficult, even more so because of the school trips we missed,” Tiu said.