Love Eagles Week spreads positivity and appreciation at American
Sarah Jensen
Staff Writer
American’s Love Eagles Week, a week dedicated to encouraging and expressing appreciation between members of the American High School community, took place from March 14 to March 18. While the activities involved included lunchtime games and events, the spirit of the week shone brightest on social media.
Love Eagles Week entailed a range of themes and activities to stimulate students to “appreciate everyone at our school and everything that they do for our school… and really highlight all the good things and the kindness that happens at our school,” according to ASB president Tara Habibi (12). Each day of the week promoted appreciating and recognizing a specific part of life at American High School: friends, teachers, opportunities, community, and the school itself.
“What we hope to come out of this week is just a lot of general appreciation for each other as a school,” Habibi said. “The first year that we did it, it was really well-received – I think a lot of people felt loved, then you feel a good sense of positivity on our campus, and that’s what we try to achieve every year.”
The daily themes corresponded to activities at school, including sticky-note compliments on Monday, faculty trivia on Tuesday, an online charity auction to match Thursday’s theme, and an ice cream celebration of school pride on Friday. ASB member Sonali Singh (12) said that the sticky notes on Monday helped to stimulate participation in the week early on.
“Tuesday and Wednesday were a little bit better than Monday, just because a lot of people didn’t [initially] know what Love Eagles Week was,” Singh said. “[The sticky notes were] to raise awareness about what our week is, and also to give everyone a cute message to put a smile on their face.”
The other half of Love Eagles Week took place online: students were encouraged to post pictures of their friends and teachers and write messages of appreciation.
“On Wednesday I Instagrammed a picture of how much the school means to me and all the opportunities it’s given me, from ASB to my dance team, to my first and last theater production at American,” ASB member Saahil Patel (12) said. “I think that the students are basically encouraged to just take this time to reflect upon themselves, the opportunities that were given to them, how much the school means to them.”
The social media side of Love Eagles Week ended up playing a more evident role than the lunchtime activities. Singh speculated that this was “because people enjoy the whole hashtag idea,” as each post was tagged with #LoveEaglesWeek.
“On campus you see a little bit of hints of [Love Eagles Week], like the sticky notes and the posters and stuff,” Habibi said. “But it’s really prevalent on social media, where you really see the pictures, and you see the heartfelt messages that people write, and I think that’s what it’s all about.”
Whether online or in person, Love Eagles Week stirred up reflections of the school and the people who are a part of it.
“I just hope that people really understand why we’re having the week, because it’s meant for appreciating mainly our school, but also the people around you,” Singh said. “I hope that people become more aware of how the school is a place where you should be comfortable and you should be happy.”
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