A sea of black shirts with 2021 on the back of them flooded the campus Friday morning August 4th as incoming freshman gathered in the large gymnasium for Desert Vista’s Thunder day school orientation.

It was a chance to get a sneak peak before the first actual day of school. Students, who came from all over the valley, not just the Kyrene district feeder schools of Akimel and Alta Dena middle, came ready and prepared the activities. Additional tours groups included students new to DV, not just freshmen.

New this year was the Thunder Force Link crew. In it, 120 juniors and seniors led the underclassmen through the events. The upperclassmen group was hand selected as leaders committed to being helpful mentors for the year. They warmly welcomed the freshman students into the gym where they would find friends and pick up their convenient name tags and learm what it meant to be a member of the Thunder family.

“Seeing my friends from my old school really made me feel more comfortable and easier to breathe once I got into the gym,” said freshman Alaina Sanders.

Counselors Kate Dowd and Mikey Krebs introducted the students to administration and other staff who would help guide them through the next few years of their high school experience. The freshmen participated in games and other activities to help them get familiar with each other and their link leaders. Students then broke up into groups and found their groups leaders, who proceeded to share hats, necklaces, stuffed animals and other fun stuff with their group to get to know them and make a connection theme.

New students then got on their way to tour of the vast DV campus.

“I was somewhat uncomfortable walking into a large and relatively new school, although, I wound up leaving the campus feeling very welcomed and confident about the year to come,” said incoming sophomore Rachel Mason. Once students had covered all the grounds they headed back to the gym for an inspiring conclusion and ready to start the new year with cool confidence.