As Senior Ramlympics has just passed, the school tradition has been a hot topic of discussion among many students. 

Fun school events that bring students together are something that DePaul Prep prioritizes. As DePaul Prep transferred campuses in the 2020-2021 school year, the student government came up with a plan to get students involved with both the school and their peers. 

They proposed the idea of Ramlympics. 

“It was brought up that we wanted to do something of this nature at the school so it was a collective student government idea that came out of one of our meetings,” explained Britt Parker, student government moderator.

The idea that students proposed was for Ramlympics to follow an Olympics-like game structure, with less intensity.

“I like to call it an organized field day,” Parker said. “Students are organized by their advisory groups and those are their teams as they compete against each other playing various games. They are athletic but also fun.” 

She adds that the main purpose of this day is to allow students to just let loose and have fun. 

Junior Ellie Rhomberg shared the joy that came out of Ramlympics for her. “Ramlympics is a really fun and unique experience that allows students to build a sense of community and teamwork. We would play a lot of fun games like corn hole and potato sack races.”  

However, as DePaul Prep continues to make changes to better the functionality of the school, they have made some shifts in activities such as Ramlympics. 

Last year, students from all grade levels participated in Ramlympics during an all-day event in May, with juniors and seniors in the morning and freshmen and sophmores in the afternoon. 

However, this 2022-2023 school year, DePaul Prep made the decision to only hold Ramplympics for freshmen and seniors. 

Rhomberg mentions that she was informed about it a few weeks ago when her junior classmate Maggie Taylor mentioned to her that Ramlympics would no longer be available to sophomores and juniors. 

“I’m really disappointed about it [Ramlympics] being gone” she said. “It was something that I looked forward to.” 

Rhomberg is not the only one. Sophomore Caroline Hartman is disappointed that she cannot participate in Ramlympics both this year and next year. 

“I did the Ramlympics last year as a freshman. It’s how I got to know a lot of my friends and it was nice to compete against people I’m usually just sitting in class with. It added a change in environment and I’m sad I can’t experience that again this year,” Hartman said.

The popular question now is, “Why is Ramlympics no longer available to Sophomores and Juniors?” 

Parker explained, “The combined junior senior Ramlympics last year was smaller. That one was manageable. The freshman-sophomore one held about 650 kids on the field and it was very large. It was almost unmanageable at that point.” 

She added, “The number of kids was far too big and it was hard to get as many workers as we needed to run those games. Additionally, we were at capacity with the number of faculty that we needed to lead each team.”

As the school grows, Parker emphasizes that it is getting too big to hold Ramlympics for all four grade levels in an effective way, as was done previously. The school is also unable to dedicate four separate school days to Ramlympics. 

But what value does this still have for Freshmen and Seniors? 

Parker shares that Ramlympics is valuable for both grade levels as it provides an opportunity for students to mingle with their peers whether they’re just now joining DePaul Prep or preparing to part ways. 

As a freshman, a high school campus can be intimidating. Students might not have as many friends and may feel worried about being left out. 

Parker shares how freshman Ramlympics combats these worries. 

“We really want the freshman Ramlympics to be a chance for the freshmen to meet each other and make new friends,” she said. “Kids are coming from all over the city and they might not get the chance to meet kids from different backgrounds.” 

Collaboration and bonding is something that DePaul Prep prioritizes especially with these fun school events. 

As for the seniors, there is a similar but slightly different goal for their senior Ramlympics. 

“For seniors it [Ramlympics] is kind of a really fun last hoorah before they graduate. We just want to provide an activity just to kick off a final fun event before they get ready to leave school,” Parker said.

With that being said, though the Sophomore and Junior Ramlympics is obviously important to DePaul Prep, they needed to make accommodations to fit the needs of the whole school. 

By providing Ramlympics to freshmen and seniors, students are able to enter and leave their time at DePaul Prep with fun activities that remind them of the environment at DePaul. 

Parker encourages students who are upset to not worry. She understands that this can be a frustrating time for sophomores and juniors but she emphasizes that students will still be able to experience it again. 

“Hang in there! It makes me sad too but I promise you will get it senior year,” she said.