During the month of May, students forfeit their lunchtime to attend the annual dodgeball tournament. Although the air in the gym is ripe with the stench of competition, there is a sweeter smell that also exists: the unity of hundreds of students cheering for a sport they love.

In April, clubs from all across campus participate in the diversity assembly, a celebration of the uniqueness we all have to offer. Students are able to come together as a whole to appreciate all of their peers.

Both of these second semester events allow students at this school to unify—something imperative in a world permeated by hatred and racism. However, because these events occur just before summer vacation, the efforts to notify the school produce no lasting results.

The school does not provide enough early opportunities during which students can expand their social horizons in a comfortable environment.

Although students would like to be brave enough to approach people with whom they have few similarities (people of a different race, a different social niche), it can be extremely hard to find an opportunity to do so.

During second semester, there are many events that serve this purpose; during first semester, there is Homecoming Week, but that tends to focus solely on the elite Homecoming court, not the school as a whole.

Because of the lack of opportunities, people are more likely to self-segregate into cliques. The Asians hang out by the large tree near the main hallway; the preppy juniors hang out by the benches in the middle of the quad.

If the administration made efforts to coordinate more events in the beginning of the year to unify the school, perhaps we would not even be able to classify a tree as the “Asian Tree.” People would learn to break out of their comfort zones and meet new, different people who have interesting perspectives to offer.

If this school ever hopes to become a community and not 1,700 individual students, there must be a concerted effort to unify in the beginning of the year when it can have noticeable effects.

Perhaps next year the school could have an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. People crammed into the bleachers would be able to make friends with their neighbors—people they likely otherwise would never have met.