By Gina O’Neill
Executive Opinion Editor
Junior Class Board took a splash into a pool of new ideas this year when they decided to administer relationship surveys as a means of a fundraiser.
The relationship surveys match students with other students of similar personalities, likes and dislikes. Each student is matched with ten people from his or her grade, and an additional ten people in the school. The fundraiser comes into play when receiving the results, as students have to pay $1 to junior class board to uncover their matches.
Junior Alex Osvath, a member of junior class board, says that the idea originally came from a company called “Computer Fun”, who provides fundraiser ideas for the schools. The board’s adviser, Amy Collins, presented it at a meeting and, according to Osvath, they “loved the idea.”
“There are so many different types of fundraisers, and we’ve never had one like this before,” Osvath said. “It’s very student interactive. We received it well, so we thought other students would receive it well.”
Junior Nicole Muscarello, also a member of class board, says that they chose they survey that was targeted towards teens in high school, based on some questions like: what do you do in class: text, etc.?
Though there’s a possibility that the results of the survey might spark controversy, Osvath and Muscarello reassured that it was meant for fun, with no requirement to purchase the results.
“It’s really just for fun, not something people should get in fights about,” Muscarello said.
Osvath says that the survey is not necessarily to match people based on who they should date, but who they are compatible with.
“It’s like, ‘I wonder who has a similar personality, who I can get along with and have a conversation with,” Osvath said. “If [people] take it the wrong way, we do apologize.”
” It’s kind of a fun thing for those who like to meet new people; it’s a good way to open up,” Osvath said.
Also, Osvath notes that after people fill out the surveys, junior class board sends the packets to the company and a computer makes the matches. Yet, after the matches are made, the company goes through them and cancels out matches with the same last name, so it’s virtually impossible to be matched with a sibling or a twin.
However, if a cousin or a close friend is matched to someone, they should take it in a friendly way, according to Osvath.
Another controversy that could seed from this is if a student were paired with her boyfriend’s best friend, or if a couple isn’t matched with each other.
“I don’t think it will [hurt relationships] because if people are dating, they clearly like each other,” Muscarello said.
The junior class board plans to send out the surveys Monday, Feb. 1, after school, as some teachers haven’t handed them out yet due to the lack of announcements on Friday.
Additionally, students who have gym second period or never received a survey can pick extras up in the library and the mail room, or ask their second period teacher if they have any. Once they have filled out a survey, they should drop it off in the activities office and ask to put them in Collins’ mailbox or bring them back to Christine Sylvester in the library.
The results will come in some time during the week of February 8, and students can pick them up during lunch hours in the commons for two to three days. The $1 cost goes to prom committee and will also reduce the cost of class T-shirts, another new fish this year found in the class board’s pool of ideas. However, most of the money will go towards prom, and if there’s any money left over, it will transfer into senior class board next year.
Although student council is handing out crushes on Feb. 10, Muscarello hopes that after viewing the survey results, people will be more inclined to buy crushes for others, maybe even their matches.
“Sometimes people are too afraid to buy a crush, but maybe if they saw that they really are compatible [with someone], they would buy a crush [for that person],” Muscarello said.
Since junior class board has received a good amount of questionnaires back, they might repeat the survey next year. Only after junior class board sells the results and sees whether it was successful will they decide whether to continue it.
“People would never think they’d be compatible with someone, but [now they can see] who they’re compatible with in the school,” Muscarello said.
Gina O'Neill • Feb 1, 2010 at 8:08 pm
No problem, Alex! Thanks so much for all the information and yes, hopefully this will help students and your fundraiser!
Nicole Muscarello • Feb 1, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Great article Gina!