S.H.S.’s time-honored homecoming events were held from September 29-October 8, all due to the successful planning of Sterling High School’s student council. Student Council members worked diligently planning, decorating, and dancing for this beloved event. Student council advisors Nicole Schelmmer and Alexis Ruiz and their creativity helps guide students, while their trust gives students freedom to make their own decisions. Aspects like these make it easy for new and returning student council members to feel included within the club. 

  Before the end of the 2021-2022 school year, Schlemmer and Ruiz emailed returning students with a survey asking them for theme ideas regarding next year’s homecoming. Student council members also met over the summer discussing ideas of theme, how to decorate, and dress days. Members held three “work day” meetings; where they created decorations for homecoming. Ultimately, Student Council agreed upon the theme of Miami Night Club, which lit up the school and students’ enthusiasm throughout the week. The decorations invited bright lights and loud music into the fieldhouse. 

  There is a hefty amount of preparation that goes into a successful homecoming. Girls and boys shop for dresses and bow ties, while also planning their outfits for spirit week, and other pre-homecoming events, such as the parade and the Homecoming football game. 

  While all of these experiences are exciting, Student Council members’ number one priority for spirit week is hosting assemblies and decorating for homecoming. Members divided up into three committees: games committee, music committee, and promotion committee. These committees are led by members who held leadership positions last school year.

  The games committee worked on designing, gathering supplies and executing the assembly games with senior Israel Grande leading the way.  The promotional committee was led by senior Megan Gingrich. This committee created dress day flyers, promotional flyers, and designed this year’s homecoming t-shirt. The music committee was led by senior Kathryn Rowzee, junior Keira Ramirez, and junior Emily Huffman, who, with input from other student council members, created playlists for the picnic, bonfire, and dance.

  To help prepare for the much-celebrated week, Huffman, and other student council members, planned with Schlemmer on what they envisioned for the decorations. Emily tackled the common area and they had settled on twinkling lights draped from the ceiling for students to walk through as they reached closer to the dance floor. 

  Huffman said, “Planning for homecoming decorations was super fun! It’s really nice that Mrs. Schlemmer and Mrs. Ruiz allow us to be so involved in the process. It’s whatever we make it to be and having a nice group to work with really makes a difference.” Huffman also mentioned, “Decorating has always been such fun for me. While, yes, it’s a little stressful, as we want everything to be cohesive and overall look good, it’s just a nice day with friends before the dance.” 

  Schlemmer also mentioned that her favorite aspect of this year’s process was getting to work with the Student Council members and getting to know them. 

  Schlemmer said, “We have so many new faces this year, especially at the freshman level. We are fortunate to have such amazing students and natural leaders to help everything run smoothly from the homecoming picnic to the dance decorating. We were truly able to delegate tasks to our students and that took a lot of stress off of Mrs. Ruiz and myself.”

  With most of the student council members able to help with decorating, students signed up weeks before to secure their position. Their time was well spent, as they received many compliments Saturday night on the flashing lights and glowing stars surrounding the DJ during the dance.

  Overall, it was a successful night. Many students danced, laughed, and took pictures to capture what would be many of the students’ first and last homecoming. From a student council member’s perspective, all of the hard work put into making this night great paid off immensely. It was so wonderful to see students from all groups sharing a fun night together.