Zachary Qin

Knockout representatives on race to shoot their basketball into the hoop. “I really [enjoyed] watching knockout,” 2028 Class Council historian Cora Struebing said. “It was [a lot of] fun to see everyone [participating].”

The 2028 Class Council hosted the Integrated Biology, English, Statistics and Technology (IBEST) Olympics for all seven freshmen IBEST cohorts—named after their respective English teachers—from Feb. 24 to Feb. 28. The IBEST olympics consisted of a series of events over the course of five days where student representatives from each cohort played various games such as knockout, human hungry hungry hippos, online escape rooms and trivia. The idea was revived last school year by the 2027 Class Council for the first time since the pandemic and was passed on to the Class of 2028.

“It is a chance for IBEST [cohorts] to relax after working so hard this year and to find out which IBEST is the ‘best,’” 2028 Class Council historian Cora Struebing said. “We got this idea to continue a long tradition that happened [before the pandemic], [which the] sophomores brought back last year.“

The event was a huge success, and the representatives had a lot of fun playing old-school style games while representing their IBEST.

“I felt great. I’m really grateful [to] the class council for providing this opportunity [for me],” freshman Justin Gao said.

The games flowed smoothly thanks to the rigorous planning done by the class council members.

“It was pretty tough to find ideas we thought that everyone would enjoy,” class of 2028 treasurer Alexander Lee said. “So, we went around asking a few other freshmen members to see what they would like, as well as think of ideas on our own, and hope they would work—and it did.”

The IBEST olympics required a lot of dedication and teamwork from each of the class council members.

“My favorite part about this event was working with all the other class council members [as well as] making all of our fellow 2028 members happy,” 2028 Class Council vice president Rithik Samanthula said.

The IBEST olympics concluded during eighth periods on Feb. 28. After the total points were tallied, the Anderson-Lodge IBEST won this event.

“I’m really happy with the amount of people that showed up today, this has definitely been the most fun this year overall,” 2028 Class Council president Kevin Kosumi said.