This years Archervision poster, created by Spanish teacher Talia Geffen depicts a microphone and the competition requirements. The language department chose to have a Wicked theme this year. The annual competition included eighth grade and upper school submissions. (Graphic illustration by Talia Geffen.)

It’s April at Archer, and students can be seen in dance formation and full costume blasting a French song across the courtyard. The Titanic is sinking on the back field, and promposals are happening during passing periods. That can only mean one thing: Archervision season is in full swing.

First held in April of 2023, the World Language Department has hosted Archervision for the past two years at Archer. They introduced it to generate excitement around language learning among students. Spanish teacher Talia Geffen and Chinese teacher Pei-Ying Gosselin took the lead in organizing the competition this year. Geffen said she enjoyed putting together the “Wicked“-themed promotional video with her colleagues and that her favorite part of Archervision is the excitement it brings to campus.

“[I love] seeing students so excited to see themselves and also cheer for their classmates and get into it and sing along,” Geffen said. “And [there’s a] buzz after the videos have been submitted, when the voting is happening and students are all talking about each other’s videos and excited [for each other].”

Freshman Clara Lieberstein helped film Chinese 3 and 3 Accelerated’s winning Upper School lip sync video, “I Miss You (好想你).” Because they filmed the majority of their music video outside of class, Lieberstein said her class had to be organized and communicative throughout the process. Lieberstein enjoyed watching the videos and the ice cream party that her class won as a prize.

“My favorite part was seeing the competition,” Lieberstein said. “I think most Archer students are kind of competitive, so I think it was just a great avenue for that.”

Geffen said a community-wide event like Archervision is special because it brings students together, and everyone wants to participate. She said she loves seeing students start planning early in the year for Archervision.

“In the early stages, students are excited,” Geffen said. “But when it’s the time crunch, that can be challenging to balance your normal class time with giving time for Archervision.”

Alexandria Haro (’29) performed, filmed and edited her class’s lip sync of “Perdonarte, ¿Para Qué?” She said the students editing their Archervision videos had the most difficult job because they had to put together video clips and add captions in English and the song’s language.

“It was definitely a long process and a heavy process with all the clips,” Haro said. “But I would say it was worth it.” 

This year, the language department decided to remove the seventh and sixth graders from the middle school category. Geffen said this was because the department realized that those students do not have enough knowledge of their language to successfully lip sync. By eighth grade, however, students have learned more content, making it a more fair starting point for the competition.

“I know that was a disappointing decision for some younger students. It was one that we weighed heavily,” Geffen said. “We recognized you just needed more to achieve at a higher level.”

Haro said she loved all the videos this year. She noticed that her class felt more put together in comparison to previous years.

“We felt a lot more prepared,” Haro said. “And I think as a whole, all the Archervision videos [this year] were really well done and were really well organized.”

Geffen believes Archervision is important because songs are likely to stick with students for life — once they know the lyrics, they can’t unlearn them. She enjoys hearing students sing their songs in the halls and filming Archervision on campus.

“We always want to kind of raise the visibility and presence of world languages on campus,” Geffen said. “And so we love that it’s just kind of infusing language into other parts of daily life.”

Haro said Archervision unites the community and showcases students’ knowledge of their language. After she submitted her class’s video, Haro saw her teacher laughing while watching it, which made Haro feel proud of her class.

“[Archervision] really shows all the diverse languages Archer provides, whether it’s doing a Chinese lip sync, or Spanish or French,” Haro said. “It’s like the Super Bowl almost. We all come together to make one thing, [and] even though our languages are separate, we all come together to celebrate one community.”