Written by Roseline Yang, Community Relations Officer
At the first POP Core members meeting, we all wrote down our wishes for the year 2017-2018 and one of Karen Shih’s wishes was that we could have a mascot or some cheering system to show how proud we were to be part of YCIS. Some days after, she joined a so-called “YCIS Spirit Club” and that was the starting point of her wish being granted!
1) Karen, can you explain: what is YCIS Spirit and what does it consist of?
YCIS Spirit is a group formed this year to promote school spirit among students, parents and staff. In some schools this would be called a booster club. One thing YCIS Spirit does is sell merchandise with school logos that anyone can wear or use to show their support for the school. We had a booth at the Christmas tree lighting and at several Christmas concerts in December selling shirts, notebooks and cups. Another thing we do is look for small but impactful ways to recognize Secondary students before significant sports events, music and drama performances and academic competitions. Some examples are, assembling goodie bags for a sports team or asking Primary students to write notes and draw pictures for Secondary students before an event.
2) Who is it composed of and how to join this group?
The group is open to any parent or staff member who want to support the school. It started with a group of Secondary parents, and now some Primary parents are also heavily involved with designing, ordering, and selling merchandise.
3) Where does this idea come from and what is the mission and vision?
The team was the idea of Janelle Garret, Lower Secondary Coordinator. This fall she recruited a few parents, including myself, to get the idea off the ground. The two goals of the group were to 1) recognize Secondary students before key events and 2) energize the YCIS community as a whole. We quickly joined forces with the POP Committee, and with their help, were able to design a logo, order merchandise, and hold our first pop-up sale at the Christmas Tree Lighting. It’s been a collaborative effort with lots of parents stepping up to volunteer and offer their talents. If this interests you, or you have new ideas for the team, we’d love to have you join!
4) Where can we find YCIS Spirit and how to contact?
Parents can look for YCIS Spirit merchandise to be sold at major school events. We don’t have dates locked in, but Global Child Day, Mad Run, parent-teacher conferences, or YCIS-hosted sporting events are the sorts of events where you might find the YCIS Spirit pop-up booth. Secondary students may also receive something from the Spirit team before a big sports, performing arts or academic event. For questions or to join the team, you can contact Nadine Runkel or Janelle Garrett.
YCIS Students are involved in a variety of co-curricular activities from K4 to Year 13. Among those co-curricular activities, the students build a sense of belonging to a team such as the Orchestra, Choir and especially with the Sport teams in Primary (soccer teams, basketball teams, swimming teams, Australian football teams). In Secondary, our students become even more involved in their sport teams with the ACAMIS tournaments all year long or their different drama performances.
The students have been doing so well in the recent years that there seemed to be an urge to celebrate these successes and congratulate both students and coaches!
“YCIS Spirit or proud to be YCIS!” If you also want to promote YCIS spirit and help encourage and cheer on our students involved in sports, performing arts and other academic competitions, now you know what to do: join the club or buy some YCIS gear!