As October approaches, the number one thing on many WCHS student’s minds is homecoming. But before homecoming can take place, there is so much planning to be done. One of the tasks being decorations. At WCHS, homecoming murals are done by grade’s executive boards.

The executive board is a committee of student volunteers that assists the SGA plan school events. One of the biggest tasks they tackle is the homecoming mural, where many students work together to create a mural for their grade that aligns with the Homecoming theme. WCHS junior Kanza Ishan has been on the class of 2024 executive board for two years now. 

“The executive board is meant to assist and help their class’s SGA with activities, fundraisers, and reach grade-wide goals,” Ishan said. “The main thing we do is help construct our class’s homecoming mural based on the year’s theme and what the SGA has planned for us. We come together after school to cut paper, measure walls, and most importantly, eat snacks!” 

This year, the homecoming theme is video games. Each class’ mural represents a different game. They create a mural based on the game they have been assigned and start to bring them to life. 

“I hope our homecoming decorations can transport the math hallway into a realm of retro games,” class of 2024 president Jessie Lin said. “Specifically, we envision a hallway where students walk alongside Mr. and Mrs. Pac-man and avoid the ghost!”

Being on the executive board means working and collaborating with students to help accomplish certain goals. The reason the executive board works so well is because of the teamwork the members are dedicated to. By completing the mural together, certain tasks are able to be split for the project to be finished on time. 

“Working together with a team of people allows for more efficient work done at a faster pace, and the results present an embodiment of everyone’s ideas and creativity,” Lin said. “This year, the executive board had the opportunity to choose what they wished to work on which reflected their artist ability, whether it was tracing, cutting, drawing, etc.”

It is important that the board does things in a timely manner so that everything is completed by homecoming. Hand-in-hand with the SGA, students are able to work on different things that allow them to help accomplish the goals they are trying to.  

“We’ve been accomplishing our goals by having different groups of people work on different things every meeting,” Ishan said. “For example, a few people would be upstairs cutting out paper fruits while even more people are downstairs measuring the hallway. This way, we can accomplish each goal with maximum efficiency and get the mural done on time.”

The reason the executive board and these murals are so important to WCHS is because of how events like homecoming can help connect the school as a community. It allows students to be more involved with the school and partake in team building activities.

“To me, these things are important to raise a sense of self and belonging in our school,” Ishan said. “When everyone in the grade is working towards the same goal, this case being the hoco mural, we come together as a class. Seeing all the hoco decorations from each class around the building has a similar effect. Students throughout the school start to share the same excitement and spirit approaching homecoming, which further strengthens our identity as a community.”