On March 29, Downey High School celebrated its annual Open House event to welcome the incoming freshmen and DHS family. The night kicked off introducing the current eighth graders to school activities and elective classes they could possibly join during their 2017-2018 school year.

One of the eighth graders that attend Doty Middle School, Harrison Smith, spent Open House looking around at the various classes that had stands there present that night.

“I actually thought that Open House was pretty fun and entertaining,” Smith said. “Overall, it was interesting to see all the different classes and clubs the high school has which is a lot more than middle schools tend to offer.”

Following up the night, the school’s multiple dance teams and dance club performed as a way to promote the dance organization of the school.

Dancer,  Klayna Gaxiola, 10, was quite anxious to perform in front of parents and students that evening.

“It was an amazing experience dancing during open house because I’ve never gotten the opportunity to dance for this event,” Gaxiola said. “Luckily the performance went well and it was a pleasure dancing for Open House with my friends to bring entertainment to the audience.”

During the event, an art show was also taking place in the school gym. Different types of art like ceramics, sketches, paintings and post-it collages were showcased from various artists at the school.

Artists of all grades, like Brianna Aguirre, 11, were encouraged to submit a piece into the art show as a way of expressing their own unique talents. Her main goal was to paint a unique portrait of someone special to her in a week’s time.

“It is all basically one color but in order to make different shades I had to mix in white or dark grey to either lighten or darken the color,” Aguirre said. “I decided to paint my mom because she’s never had a portrait of herself so I thought it would be cute to do so.”

The night event overall was very informative to the future students of Downey High School and appealed to both students and parents attending the event. Classes, electives, and sports such as robotics, newspaper, track and field, basketball, volleyball, band, and color guard were presenting the opportunities and possibilities available when joining such classes the following year. This year’s Open House proved to be successful yet again and provided an insight in how to be a proud Downey Viking.