MFS’ January 22 assembly was not a typical one. The seats were empty in the auditorium. Instead, there was laughter and excitement coming from the classrooms. You could find many students intensely focusing while playing a board game or helping someone guess their headband clue. With Meeting for Business cancelled due to a lack of issues to attend to, the Upper School was left with an open assembly period, and Agenda decided to try something a little bit different. This assembly was focused on community building, which it accomplished by pairing one Freshman-Sophomore advisor group with one Junior-Senior advisor to participate in various activities together. Each advisor group was given options about what activities they could do, including board games, silly games, community art, and large group games. Senior Brian Pansius, the Meeting for Worship for Business Clerk, said, “PTW (Priscilla. Taylor-Williams) came up with the idea in Agenda, and the topic was discussed. The idea was expanded upon, taking ideas from Intensive Learning Groups including Improv with Issues and Exploring Art.”  Other ideas Agenda considered for the empty assembly block included grade-bonding events.

Wordsworth asked students about how they felt the assembly went. Many people enjoyed the experience. Senior Adam Mohsen-Breen said, “I loved the assembly. It was really fun! We played Apples to Apples and played music. It was a great opportunity to bond with the Freshmen.”  However, some students were not as pleased. Senior David Golden remarked, “There were too many people in my room for the games to work. Also, there was a lack of good games. We only had Apples to Apples.” When asked about whether there would be more assemblies similar to this soon, Pansius said it was “unlikely.”