Photo credit: Kristin Taylor

The Class of 2025 sits around a campfire on the last night of their senior trip in Big Bear. Students roasted s’mores and performed skits with their trail group, reflecting on their time spent together as a grade.

Senior year for Archer students is often a busy year filled with college applications and many senior traditions. From Sept. 4 – 6, the Class of 2025 spent two nights in Big Bear to bond with each other and take a step away from the stress of senior year.

Staying in cabins near Big Bear’s Cedar Lake, the seniors participated in activities from kayaking and scaling ropes courses to playing Gaga ball. Parker Keston (’25) said she enjoyed bonding with her peers in a less physically and mentally challenging setting compared to their previous Arrow Week backpacking trips.

“There were definitely people who I hadn’t connected with, even though I’ve been going to school with them since sixth grade,” Keston said. “There [were] people I haven’t been given the opportunity, or haven’t taken the opportunity, to connect with as much.”

The Class of 2025 missed their seventh grade Arrow Week due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 12th Grade Dean of Culture, Community and Belonging Casey Huff said although senior retreats are usually “enhanced fall outings,” the adminstration decided on an extended trip, in an effort to make up for their missed Arrow Week.

“So the hope is really about connection and joy and giving them that time to be together without phones, which is already happening on campus, but in a beautiful, enhanced setting,” Huff said. “I would say that for each fall outing [and] senior retreat, we’re always thinking about the ability of the grade [and] what the grade needs.”

Senior Julianna Hatton said that it was special for her class to be able to bond in a last big hurrah of a fall class trip. She said being tech-free and without college stress helped the class take a step back and reset.

“I think we were really able to all embrace that mindset and just connect with our peers over things that weren’t such looming deadlines,” Hatton said.

Keston said she believes it is important to bond with new people especially at the beginning of senior year in order to make memories in the time they have left as a class. She said her trail group created a “no college talk” policy to give them the space to reset.

“Honestly, it was nice because no one was really talking about their schoolwork and their essays and everything that can be so stressful in the ‘real world,” Keston said.

Huff said when students apply to the same schools, they may feel a sense of competition because they are essentially being evaluated against each other. She said this sometimes negatively impacts friendship dynamics.

“My goal overall as [the] senior dean is to help them develop tools and ways to manage those feelings because I do think it will naturally come up, but also using this trip as a launching point to remind them that it’s all gonna be okay,” Huff said. “Everything will work out for them. There’s going to be some bumps along the road, but we’re gonna going to get through this together.”

Hatton said that with this being the last trip the grade has together, they were all very conscious of making every second count in order to have a memorable year.

“This trip really enabled us to all have tangible appreciation for our grade, for the world, [and] for each other,” Hatton said. “I think putting us all together out there was really special, because we all got to take such time and space to reflect on the specialness of our grade and to show our gratitude and foster some appreciation for each other.”