Tensions rise as advisory members yell at each other from across the forum. Anticipation is met by division, heartbreak, and cries of joy when the winners are placed on the podium. This fire and thirst for winning are not seen because of a varsity sports game, but because of this week’s Senior advisory challenge: Chicago trivia.

In the days leading up to the upper school class trips, the various grades spent their hours preparing in vastly different ways. The sophomores’ forum had camping equipment filling every bit of empty space, something reminiscent of the camping section of an outdoor store. Walking down into the senior forum, however, would lead you to a whole other world, stemming from the ideas of student senior class president Ziyad Emara ‘23 and senior class treasurer Raj Tiller ‘23.

“At the beginning of the year we [student representatives] were reminiscing about activities from previous years and we remembered intramurals from middle school and wanted to bring it back with a twist,” said Emara.

Emara and Tiller emphasized the importance of using these advisory challenges to strengthen the bond between students in advisory and in the grade as a whole through competitions. 

Emara said that advisory challenges are not set in stone and that he is open to any ideas from the senior class. One example of an activity being included is beach pong, a game created by members of the senior class which is essentially ping pong but played with a beach ball and two tables located in the senior forum.

“Our vision was to have sports-style tournaments but we have expanded [it] to make it more fluid including spirit activities, trivia, and beach pong,” said Emara.

While some of the activities proposed by members of the senior class have been banned from being played in the senior forum such as ping pong and Spikeball, Emara and Tiller have worked with 12th grade dean Danielle Conti in order to obtain a solution.

“Ms. Conti has allowed ping pong and beach bong outside, and we have even thought of setting up multiple tables so we could get it [the challenge] done within the advisory period,” said Tiller. 

While first met with skepticism, the ideas surrounding advisory challenges were met with nothing but approval from the class of 2023, including seniors Will Rayner ‘23 and Dylan Carvette ‘23.

“I think the advisory challenges are a great idea as they give us a way to blow off steam outside of academics while still being at school,” said Carvette. “It is especially important for advisories like mine with two different friend groups because these competitions give us something to bond over.”

Rayner shared a similar feeling as well, expanding on the importance of the challenges during advisory time.

“Advisory gets boring sometimes because we sit around and just talk, but these challenges are something new and give me something to look forward to during our [advisory] meetings,” said Rayner.

Not just seniors were enthralled with the idea, however. Especially in the wake of online classes due to Covid, Conti also thinks that these challenges add something valuable to the class of 2023.

“I really like them [the challenges],” said Conti. “ I feel like they are a great way for the senior class to band together and show their school spirit together as advisory groups. I know that covid can make you feel disconnected from the community, and I feel like the challenges are an additional extension of reconnecting within the Greenhills community.”

Seniors are not the only ones contributing to these challenges, however, as advisors are welcome to compete in the events and Emara and Tiller are enlisting the help of a newly founded middle school club to help construct the advisory challenge award.

“They are working with the 3D printing club to create a trophy modeled off of the Stanley Cup to be gifted to the advisory who wins the marking period one challenge,” said Conti. “From now until they stop running these challenges the names of the winning advisories will be written on the trophy.”

While only one challenge has been played thus far–Chicago trivia–Emara and Tiller are planning to do a beach pong tournament challenge involving multiple tables to ensure all advisories are able to play during the constrained time period. 

Going forward, sports-oriented activities seem to be the main focus for future challenges, however, seniors like Jay Vijan ‘23 offered their visions as well:

“I think it would be cool to see challenges that involve video games like Mario Kart or Wii Sports,” said Vijan.

The advisory challenges are still in their beginning stages, but there is no sight of them stopping soon.

“The challenge system that they [Tiller and Emara] created is one that will have a lasting existence here at Greenhills and hopefully some other grades will follow suit,” said Conti.