By Luke Holthouse

Director of Bookstore Operations Tina Cleveland organized the first ever “National Student Day” celebration at Harvard-Westlake inside the bookstores at both the middle and upper school on Thursday. The bookstores offered food, games and prizes to students from 9:25 a.m.-2 p.m. to give students a break from their busy days.

“The whole point is for the bookstore to show that we appreciate you,” Cleveland said. “It’s not just a place where you go to buy things and you have to spend money. It’s a place you can go and hang out, or a place with no stress, no limitations, no academic rules. It’s a place where you can walk in and just chill for 30 seconds.”

With the help of Bookstore Manager Irma Hernandez, Bookstore Assistant Allie Costa and Bookstore Seasonal Employee Elva Espinoza, Cleveland will also be organizing the first ever “Make Your Mark in the Community” student contest to honor the work that students do in the Harvard-Westlake community that often goes unrecognized. Students can submit an entry into the contest explaining their contributions to the school community in hopes of winning a prize. Three upper school students and three middle school students will be awarded. Submissions are due Friday, Oct. 28. Students can turn in either written or video submissions to enter the contest. For more information and an entry form, visit this link: http://students.hw.com/Portals/45/communityserviceflyer.pdf.

“We think you guys are awesome and we know you guys do awesome things in the community, we just don’t really know what it is all the time,” Cleveland said. “It’s a way for kids who don’t always get recognized to get recognized.”