On the morning of Friday, September 9, students and faculty alike stormed Westridge in a sea of yellow and blue for the traditional Greek and Roman Initiation as new students and faculty anxiously awaited their induction into Greek or Roman families.
Greek and Roman Initiation has long been a spirited tradition at Westridge, and this year, on a gloomy Friday morning outside on Herrick Quad, it was no different.
This year, the theme for Greek and Roman initiation was “Dinosaurs.” ASB Greek and Roman Heads Sunday L. ’23 and Athena N. ’23 dressed in blowup dinosaur costumes, and Greek and Roman grade-level representatives, as well as other members of Westridge’s Associated Student Body were decked out in yellow and blue dinosaur-themed attire.
When trying to come up with a theme, Greek Head Sunday said, “Athena, [the Roman Head], and I just talked about it, and she had the idea to do a dino theme and I loved it, so I was like ‘Yeah, sounds good.’” After the theme had been decided, Sunday and Athena met with the Greek and Roman grade-level representatives to continue planning the event. They purchased all the necessary materials and put them together to create the dinosaur-themed Greek and Roman Initiation for all of Westridge to enjoy.
Ms. Brittany Coker, Upper School Dean of Student Activities, along with a student-elected team of Greek and Roman representatives, plans the yearly event. “It’s a lot to organize, and to make sure that it works,” she said. “But we’re so happy to be able to do it. It’s just such a fun, celebratory event. So it’s something that everyone looks forward to.”
Ms. Coker continued, “It was amazing. I loved it. So, in the last four years, we’ve done four different types of Greek Roman initiation. My first year, it was in the gym, and then COVID happened, so we had to do it online. We tried, but it was just so hard when you're that confined. But this year, we’re back together again. We couldn’t be inside but at least we can be together. So, we were so excited.”
New students agreed that the event was a fun celebration.
“Getting the actual certificates was like, ‘wow, I’m actually doing this!’” Said Zoe T. ’26.
“It was fun. I was excited to be Greek because I wanted to be Greek really bad. And the dinos were really cute too,” said Rokia C. ’31.
Alexis S. ’31 said, “It was really fun, just the one problem was that there were no dino nuggets.”
Jenna Orlandini, a new member of the Physical Education department, said, “I think [Greek and Roman initiation] is a really fun tradition for the school, and it kinda brings us together at the same time as putting you into groups. I like the philosophy that the yellow and the blue come together to make green and that’s the most important thing to remember when we think of that tradition.”