Homecoming came to University High School on Nov. 4 and it was a huge success. An estimated 160 UHSSE students attended this fall season, a great turnout for a post-COVID-19 school event.

It has been a long time since we’ve had a Homecoming and it was masterfully planned by our ‘24 Junior Student Council.

Homecoming had the light theme of ‘In The Clouds’ which was used mostly for the decorations, being all cloud themed around the school. It was received well and students thought it was fun and creative, “It was cool,” said Qaasim Ali ‘23, with a nod in agreement from Garrett Bartko ‘23. “We all had a good time during [the dance].” The setup had a great turnout and anyone who was available showed up to help with decorating and moving around tables.

I had a chance to speak with English teacher and student council adviser Joseph Tarantino about what went into making the event happen. “There were about 18 students in the council during the creation process,” he said. Mr. Tarantino said that the team was passionate about setting up for the school event and took tons of time out of their days to work and collaborate about Homecoming. “Even the volleyball team came to help set it up!”

Mr. Tarantino said it was incredibly exciting to watch everything come together. “I felt so proud of my team to have an event that brought the school community together and made it feel like school was back.”

I was also able to quickly speak with Daniel Nanovsky ‘24 who was a part of the planning process. “Really it came down to the theme and food,” Nanovsky said. “The theme came naturally and for food we wanted to go with finger food and we had Olive Garden cater.”

Those who had attended may have noticed the change to the Homecoming Court. The council had decided to use the gender neutral term royals, rather than king or queen. With that being said, we had four royals. Congratulations to Nickeya Jones ‘23, Albiona Teqolli ‘23, Tanmay Thaker ‘24, and Shania Burke ‘26.

I was able to speak with Thaker quickly about Homecoming and campaigning. “Honestly, I came in that morning to see [the planning of Homecoming]. I just signed up on a whim.” Clearly, he made the right decision.

Overall, Homecoming was a huge success for UHSSE and was a great experience for the school community. There was a mostly positive outlook about the event and was a great comeback and end to our fall season. Special thanks to everyone who came out to Homecoming and another special shout out to the Junior Student Council for setting up and preparing the event.