By Elise Kim ‘25

Every student whether an incoming freshman or a seasoned senior has a scheduled part of their day scheduled out for Community & Connection (or as it is more popularly known as C&C). It is essentially the equivalent to a homeroom or advisory.

While everyone has a collective experience of being in a C&C, this is not to say they are all the same; each have their own distinct environment which can be seen in their equally distinct traditions. Alas, a student will never get to experience multiple C&C communities, but perhaps knowing these traditions can give us insight.

Thus, without further ado, here is a collection of some of the most popular Catlin Gabel School (CGS) C&C traditions, some new, some old, but traditions all the same.

FOOD! From Pumpkin-Spiced Twinkies to Paninis to Taco flavored Chips

At some point in the year, most C&Cs will have some sort of food brought in, however, some have taken this opportunity to craft their own unique food traditions.

Students in Wendy and Tamara’s C&C schedule out each month so that students can always expect an afternoon snack. Senior Justin Xia took his C&C food shift to the next level when he brought in his panini press with bread, ham, and Monterey Jack cheese in tow. According to Xia, he began by bringing in cookies, and after that pickles, which “everybody loves.”

“Every time I bring food in C&C, I try to one-up myself,” said Xia. “When you bring in really good food that everybody likes, you want to have that same feeling again, but you can’t just bring in the same food because that’s boring,”
When brainstorming his next C&C snack, he asked himself what he liked to make for himself at home, and the idea of bringing his panini machine to school came to mind. Xia takes the food orders from his fellow students (upperclassmen have priority over underclassmen) and passes them out on paper plates or napkins. The C&C paninis are almost always showcased on Xia’s Instagram account @justins_sandwiches, with members holding up the classic Italian sandwich with smiles on their faces.

*Xia grilling paninis with his panini machine.*
*Photo by Elise Kim ‘25*

The first image of one of @justins_sandwiches’ posts.

Photo by Elise Kim ‘25

Despite the fact that making the paninis is expensive and time-consuming, Xia enjoys making the sandwiches because they “taste really good and everybody’s happy afterward.” One freshman in the C&C never eats his panini when it is offered to him, so Xia has made it his goal that by the end of senior year he will get him to try one of his sandwiches.

In Elizabeth and Marguerite’s C&C, food takes on a more competitive side with a chip-tasting bracket. According to junior Scarlett Keys, they’ve tried chips flavored tzatziki, taco, pickle, pimento, and even cheeseburger and rated them according to five criteria: Taste, Texture, Residue, Smell, and Overall Rating. This year, the chips reigning supreme are “Pickle Lays” and “Trader Joe’s Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips Chili and Lime” flavors.

Keys stated the chip-tasting ranking is one of her favorite traditions, as “some of the chips have been really good, some of them bad, but it’s always fun.”

The chip rankings are displayed on a spreadsheet.

Courtesy of Scarlett Keys ‘26.

Our next food-related tradition was essentially masterminded by former faculty member Dave Whitson, who used to lead what is now Megan and Emily’s C&C.

As a frequent shopper at Grocery Outlet, “the only non-stupidly priced grocery store out there”, Whitson explained the model allows its customers to purchase food close to expiration or out of season for a low price, essentially the food leftovers from other supermarkets. This furnishes the perfect environment to hunt for the wackiest of wacky snacks.

“My game was basically: What can I find for a dollar at Grocery Outlet and will Theo Butler eat it?” said Whitson. Despite the snacks ranging from Pumpkin Spice-flavored Twinkies to assorted candy-flavored crackers, Whiston stated that Butler would sample them every time.

Even in his absence, the tradition lives on as senior Rachel Cohrs stated that junior Audrey Tsai brought in Coke-flavored Oreos at some point this year.

Happy Birthday to you! More C&C traditions for you!!

Most, if not all, of C&Cs celebrate students’ birthdays by bringing a sweet treat or snack for them on their special day. Many posters can be seen hanging on the walls of various classrooms throughout campus with C&C members' names and birthdays written in colorful pastel pen. Some C&Cs supplement that tradition with more birthday traditions.

Students celebrating their birthdays in Blythe Butler and Andrew Merill’s C&C leave with a treat and an increased supply of writing utensils. The lucky C&C member receives a custom-made pencil ordered by Butler through Etsy that reads: “Butler/Merrill C&C Loves Me.”

The special custom-made birthday pencil from Butler and Merrill’s C&C

Photo by Elise Kim ‘25

Maureen Reed, Tyler Reuter, and Lindsey Babbitt's C&C take the phrase “the older you are, the wiser” to heart when it comes to birthday traditions.

“Every year, when it is someone’s birthday, we decided that you are 100 times more mature than you were, like the previous day. Therefore, you should give everybody some advice,” said senior Lauren Kim.”

In past years, Kim said she has given her fellow C&C members the advice: “Do your homework.”

In addition, the birthday boy or girl is given the option to command all C&C students in one grade to serenade them with a karaoke song of their choice. According to Kim, the juniors (including her) had to sing “Blinding Lights” by The Weekend.

“We sang for [what felt] like 10 minutes. It was not very pleasant,” said Kim. “[The] karaoke [tradition] is fun until you inevitably are the one singing.”

Let the C&C games begin….

Birthday traditions are only one of the plethora of Maureen, Tyler, and Lindsay’s C&C traditions. The group also on occasion participates in their fair share of friendly competitions and games.

One such game is called “Bite the Bag” where players gather in a ring and take turns bending over without their knees touching the ground to bite a paper bag off the ground. To survive in the game, one must first not let the bag slip from their teeth, second, keep their balance, and third, successfully rip a section of the bag off. If one of those two things happens, then the player is automatically out.

Kim stated that the bag inevitably gets smaller and smaller and the game is won when only one player remains standing. She also mentioned that she remains victorious in the game.

While C&C games are often done spontaneously, Amanda Williams and Sue Phillips’ C&C has designated Wednesdays as their “game day.” Sophomore Addi Slothower stated that the game day usually involves ping pong matches; two tables serve as the table and books for a net. She described the matches as “pretty uncompetitive” as “people just try and get it [the ball] over” and more often than not the ping pong ball flies all over the place.

Along with ping pong, Slothower said the C&C also regularly plays Bananagrams and Uno.

Games take on a more digital form in Brett Mathes and Judy Rose’s C&C. Students take advantage of the Promethean boards (large TV-like screens) in the Music Room to play popular New York Times word games such as the Wordle, Connections, and Strands.

Freshman Zoe Wittig expressed appreciation for the word game traditions as a way to boost energy in the group.

“At the beginning of the year, there was not much participation, most people didn’t really talk, and then it kind of was boring and people just wanted to leave,” said Wittig. “The word games are nice because you don’t have to talk about your day, but you can still hang out.”

In Ginia King and Dan Petrocelli’s C&C, it is not crosswords and word puzzles that are projected on a screen, but digitized dancers clad in extravagant themed costumes busting out moves to hit throwback songs such as Rasputin (Club Mix) by Boney M. and Waka Waka by Shakira. Just in front of the projection, students can be seen trying their hardest to mirror the dancers’ movements, sometimes coupling their dancing with singing. Yep, you guessed it, Ginia and Dan’s C&C participate in Just Dance.

According to senior Annika Sirtori, three years ago CGS graduate Willa Whalen-Stewart came into C&C one day and introduced the Rasputin Just Dance tradition. Since then, every Friday the group can be seen mimicking a bearded Russian dancer, whether he’s playing the violin or doing the iconic rapid squat and kick routine. Sirtori stated that the group has since expanded their repertoire to include Lady Gaga’s top hits and Bruno Mars' songs such as 24K Magic, which have been equally enjoyable.

*Students replicating the human bike dance move from the Just Dance video* *Waka Waka*.
*Photo by Elise Kim ‘25*

*Students dancing to the* *Rasputin Just Dance video*.
*Photo by Elise Kim ‘25*

Last but not least are two competitions from Megan and Emily’s C&C: The Tardy Counter and C&C Wrestling.

Whitson, the creator of this competition, stated that counting tardies was something that began “organically” as there were some C&C members who talked about how they were late to everything, and also everyone said they were always late.

“I would wonder, ‘Gosh! How many tardies do you actually have? And then I[Whitson] thought, ‘Ok, how many tardies does everyone in C&C have?” said Whitson.

He views the tardy counter as “a gentle corrective measure”, but not “quite on the level of public shaming” as there’s “gallus humor involved and everyone’s in on the joke.” He noticed that the number of tardies decreased when the issue was brought to students’ awareness.

“It’s kind of a low-stakes, funny way of trying to get people a little bit more on time,” said Whitson.

A screenshot of a C&C tardy ranking was sent through email by Whitson.

Courtesy of Rachel Cohrs ‘25

Unfortunately, some traditions can end poorly; a prime example would be C&C wrestling, which originated around 8 years ago (an estimation made by Whitson). He and former faculty member Cliff Mason (then his C&C partner) had been joking about the number of guys in the C&C who showed strong interest and enthusiasm to wrestle.

“We just happened to have a cluster of people in the C&C that were just like, ‘Yeah we want to wrestle on the floor and all that. Sounds like a great use of C&C time you know?’” said Whitson.

Thus, a “play date” was made with another C&C, and three different matchups were set. During one of the matchups, a member from the other C&C “ran straight up in front of our guy, and ended up flying and kneed his face.”

“It was a pretty fun, goofy, innocent way to burn 10 minutes until it wasn’t,” said Whitson, later clarifying that it wasn’t “C&C MMA” and that there was a relatively low risk of injury until that other C&C member “got a little bit out of control.”

Cohrs stated that wrestling made a comeback in her C&C around 2 years ago, but this time in the much more tame form of hand and leg wrestling. Alas, one member still injured themselves in the process, thus C&C wrestling, for the time being, has been gone for good.

Oh, there’s no place like C&C for the holidays…

Junior Molly Hillhouse has made it her personal goal to plan parties and festivities, especially around the holidays since her sophomore year. One of her main ideas has been for each student to make their own “seasonal C&C critter.”

Each member cuts out their own critter for the holiday such as spiders, witches on Halloween, and snowflakes during winter holidays. Hillhouse then prints and cuts out the faces of all her C&C members. They are then stuck onto the crafts and hung around the classroom.

“I think this has really made the space our own and becomes a collaborative effort as we all share materials and help hang each other’s critters,” said Hillhouse.

Two Halloween-themed C&C critters.

Courtesy of Molly Hillhouse ‘26

And when Christmas break is just around the corner, many C&Cs will participate in some form of Secret Santa or White Elephant to celebrate the coming of the holiday. While many have winter or Christmas-based themes, Cohrs explained that students in her C&C try to only give gag gifts in their White Elephant.

Some of the strangest gifts have been “a hundred-pound gummy bear bag”, an “ugly Christmas sweater”, and “a used air hockey game.” And last but certainly not least a cat head squirrel feeder was gifted to Whitson by Butler one year. Whitson eventually found a use for the squirrel feeder: to, with the help of some nuts, train the furry critters to come into his office, “grab a nut and leave.”

The cat bird feeder was never installed for such a purpose, but Whitson stated that several squirrels still ran through his office door “a few times.”

The students interviewed for this article all appreciated their C&C traditions as it was an easy way to keep everyone engaged as well as lift everyone’s mood. For instance, Hillhouse shared appreciation for her C&C tradition of playing board and card games

A deep dive into Catlin’s C&C Traditions