Authors: Christina Huang, Sophia Zhang
Interviewers: Karen Chen, Allison Pham
Date: October 19, 2022
Buildings plastered with vibrant decorations and posters, fun skits and performances at a night rally, and a school dance to round everything off—HOCO season for EVHS is one many students look forward to every year.
But this payoff is the hard work of many dedicated students and staff.
Trilena La ‘23 was one of the co-heads for this year’s DECO Committee, the team responsible for the hallway decorations in the A Building, props for the night rally, and more.
According to Trilena, the experience was quite busy, partially because of bigger goals. “We definitely put more on our plate than last year,” she said, explaining that this year the team had increased the number of hallway walls they’d wanted to cover from last year.
On the other hand, Trilena also felt that the team was “more prepared this year than last year,” as 2021 HOCO was a period of time where students were still adapting to the in-person school experience. Thus, they “were able to get a lot more done this year.”
This experience was something paralleled by other committees. Sofia Peralta ‘23, a co-captain of the ADC (Acting, Dancing, and Choreography), agrees that this year’s HOCO experience was distinct from last year’s.
“This year, homecoming was extended over the course of three weeks, instead of just one,” Sofia said. “This was a big challenge for the class officers and all of our homecoming committees because we lost around 2 weeks of preparation time.”
Despite this challenge, members on the ADC worked hard on practicing their skit performances. Kaylee Dang ‘26, another co-captain of ADC said, “We’ve been practicing after school for almost everyday, and for at least two hours each day.” This commitment however paid off, with Kaylee describing their choreography as “top notch.”
ADC’s performance was also a collaborative process with the skit committee, the team responsible for writing, casting, costuming, and rehearsing the HOCO night rally skits. Laya Krishnan 26’, the head of the freshman skit committee, mentions that she too found it a lot of work, describing it as “quite stressful for me and my fellow officers since we were working overtime. We ended up staying late a lot of nights, we ended up being in places where we could’ve been more ahead.”
Yet people continued to push through despite the stress and confusion.
“We did really rise to the occasion. We pulled it off and I think we did a really good job. I’m proud of what we’ve done,” said Laya.
Hannah Chan ‘26, the Head of Athletics, agrees that although “the position [she has] is known to be stressful,” it was admittedly still “pretty fun.”
Laya stated that the hard work put into it made the final result all the more memorable. “It is a lot of work, but I definitely think it was worth it when you watch the night rally and you’re like, cheering and screaming with everyone else and it’s super awesome.” She added, “The most exciting part was putting in all of that work, that kind of buildup, that kind of explosion of a show that we pulled off.”
Through all the hard work of preparations, they all agree that what made the experience most memorable was the people they got to work with.
“I think it’s a lot more fun than I expected, not that I thought it was going to be bad. The people make it coming to ADC practice a lot more enjoyable,” said Kaylee
“It has been such a privilege to work with our amazing group of HOCO participants, and to be able to bond during our senior year.” Sofia added that because it was the last homecoming for seniors, it felt extra special.
“The whole experience was also very emotional with this being Class of 2023’s last Homecoming,” said Sofia.
“I just wanted to say that I’m so glad to have gotten this opportunity to work with my class officers and other Hoco participants. I'm so grateful to every one of them and to every other student who has high school spirit! Participating in school events and supporting your school and class makes a huge difference to our school environment,” said Trilena.
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