Nimo Ren '25
Throughout these 330 years, community has always been a cornerstone of the academics and interests of Abington Friends School. During and after the pandemic, what defines a community has been gray, but that connection with students to their school has never disappeared. The student body’s participation in athletics, theater, government, and clubs/affinity spaces reflects this fact.
AFS is a small school that excels in academics and art, limiting a competitive environment. We don’t have the cliches of school spirit with football homecomings or animated spirit weeks.
Kendall Dixon ‘26 said, “We’re not the greatest at sports but…we make it fun…Winning all the points isn’t important.”
As Dixon mentioned, there are other elements of school spirit than just pride when games are won.
There is a sense of pride in the school that carries across divisions, teams, and is present regardless of victory or defeat. That is what is at the core of a community with a sense of dignity.
In an interview with Lisa Treadway-Kurtz, Assistant Athletics Director, there was a lot of excitement about the upcoming pep rally.
Treadway-Kurtz said, “I love to see the joy on a day like this. I just wish it would carry over so maybe this is the start!”
Treadway-Kurtz expressed her desire for school spirit to rise in the near future. Across athletics she urges student engagement stating, “When they can, just come out and see what their classmates are doing,” which is a good way to increase spirit and support.
Treadway-Kurtz also said she would like to “put a plug in for the arts,” emphasizing that school spirit does not only include support for athletic games, it should carry over into everything that is occurring in student life.
“There are some great things happening on this campus,” she said.
There is school spirit in many elements of life at AFS that should be celebrated to strengthen the community bond.
Student-led events such as Kicks for Cancer and Black Excellence Night have shown impressive turnouts that indicate how hard working and creative we can be.
Black Excellence Night brings the community together in celebration of Black culture and pride, and lifts up talent.
Kicks for Cancer raises awareness of a cause that affects many members in our community, and shows that no matter grade, age, or athletic ability we can show up for AFS in a way that demonstrates our school pride.
However, there are some mixed feelings among the student body on whether there is a lack of school spirit despite the participation in student life.
Lexi Campos-Teixeira ‘25, a member of student agenda committee, said, “I love my school…[school spirit] honestly makes school more enjoyable when you’re excited to be there everyday..[but], I think school spirit is definitely something we’re lacking. [It’s] been an issue that has been brought up in many of our STAC meetings as something we need to improve on.”
Connections across grades help to foster greater school spirit in the community. When more students have connections to more students they are more likely to want to watch, attend, and cheer at games including all AFS teams. A greater connection between grades in upper school could lead to more support for all the players on every team.
Grades interact through athletics, clubs, and affinity spaces. Spaces such as family groups that stretched across all grades were created in the 2021-22 school year but are not currently running.
When the idea of bringing back family groups was brought up at the junior class meeting, a unanimous “NO” filled the room.
School spirit and cross-grade interaction have also fallen short when there have been attempts for the past two years to have a school dance in the fall. Both were unsuccessful because of the lack of sign-ups.
Even though homecoming-type dances are a way for all grades in a high school to bond and collectively dress up to have a fun night, it doesn’t seem to be a sufficiently popular idea at AFS.
However, the AFS winter pep rally proved that we can show up as an entire school and engage with one another. The purpose of the pep rally is to show admiration for the Upper School Winter athletes from wrestling, girls and boys basketball, swimming, and indoor track and field.
At this event, when asked what students could do better to boost school spirit at AFS, Izzie Pugh ‘26 said, “Fill[ing] up that student section for sure and participat[ing] in school activities…and events.”
Overall, we urge students to be aware of the impact they have on school spirit. Both students and faculty alike have a role to play in the amount of school spirit that exists at AFS, but students have a unique ability to add to the atmosphere of support just by showing up more to support their classmates.
The best way for our school to improve our school spirit is for AFS students to show up more in support of friends and peers at athletic events, artistic showcases, and all elements of life on our campus throughout the year.