On October 24, after a field trip to the state capitol, the Class of 2018 gathered in the Middle School MPR to participate in the Divergent games, planned by their freshman class council.
Students were grouped into five different factions and competed for points as five teams. The class social was based off the book and movie Divergent. In Divergent, there are five factions named for the personality of their group —Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite.
To commence the games, class council secretary Anika Keuning quoted the book, saying, “The future belongs to those who know where they belong. After this moment, you will no longer be dependants; you will be full fledged members of this society. Faction before blood.”
Students participated in two games based on the two factions Amity and Abnegation. The Amity competition was agriculturally themed, requiring a pair of students from each faction to form a human wheelbarrow to compete in a race for dodge balls. The goal was to wheelbarrow to the center of the room, where a faction representative (student council) would place a dodge ball between the “wheelbarrow’s” legs. The faction that brought back six dodge balls to the starting point in the shortest amount of time was declared the winner of that competition.
The next competition represented Abnegation, the selfless faction that rejects vanity in the book. Factions dressed a representative, using accessories the class council brought from home. The models were judged by vice principal Ryan Frontiera and freshman advisors Katherine Pang, Robert Fusato, and Lesley Stevens. Class president Megan Yamauchi said, “This game was a fashion show so it was more like an ANTI-abnegation [competition] because contestants were showing off.”
The freshman class council plan to continue the Divergent games throughout the year with three more competitions based on the remaining factions in the book. Points from each competition will be tallied up to determine the overall winning faction. As of this first social, the student made faction of Abnegation is in the lead.
Photographs by Joel Lau (’18)
