From city living to mountain hiking, students have put effort into decorating their bodies when they dress the theme every day during homecoming week.
“Homecoming has been fantastic thus far with all the fun theme days and great activities,” said Sonya Hu, a senior nominated for homecoming queen.  
Besides the attire of those in the hall, the theme, “Road Trip Around the World,” can also be seen in the elaborately designed door decks each with a unique take on the homecoming theme; for example, one design has a Bruin holding up a road sign.
Freshmen advisory classes are threaded in the Bruin spirit by the door deck challenge, a tradition here. Teachers help guide their students and share their competitive spirit. Abigail Gorsage, an art teacher, hopes to take home the prize. Gorsage’s class door has a high-way road extending to the horizon as well as a tangible red truck that signifies road tripping.
“My advisory students have really taken a lot of ownership on our door decks [this year],” Gorsage said. “They’ve really taken leadership, and so I haven’t really had to direct much. I’m really proud to see that, and even if we don’t win, it was a really good experience for us as a group.”
One student, freshman Alexia Williams, noticed Gorsage, has worked particularly diligently. She said though a theme exists everyone pitches in “a little bit and then it really comes to life.”
“Yes, I am super competitive, and I’ve stayed after school twice and have come early one day,” Williams said. “I moved here the day before school started, so I didn’t get all the classes that I wanted. So this is kind of my opportunity to do art. And also, like I said, I am very competitive.”
Judging took place Wednesday and Thursday. These judges receive rubrics that ranks the designs by creativity, effort, theme, school spirit and an additional ‘dimension’ from a scale 1-5. The winner receives a prize that has yet to be determined but usually consists of food.
“The door deck judges are made up of counselors and administrators,” said Douglas Stansberry, the main coordinator of the door deck competition. “Last year the prize was pizza, I don’t know if that will be the same or not.”