Upon first glance, Montrose in mid November seemed to be in the midst of a normal school day. However, a closer look revealed that things were far from ordinary on 29 North Street. Groups of Freshman wearing goggles, hula skirts, princess dresses, suspenders, boas, and a host of other garments, juniors laughing and cheering on the 9th graders, confused teachers, congo lines, Rice Krispy treats, mysterious Joshers… “What does this mean?!” cries an outsider. It’s just Josh Week. For Montrosians that is perfectly normal.

Josh Week is an exciting annual tradition where the juniors officially welcome the freshmen into the upper school. Every freshman has a mysterious junior josher who gives them costumes and silly tasks to do every day. By the end of the week, ninth graders become legitimate upper school students.

“The juniors worked really hard to prepare josh week,” said junior Sarah Baker. The junior class decided to transform the freshman into minions from Despicable Me, and juniors acted as their Masterminds. At the end of the week, the class of 2017 was welcomed in as upper schoolers and fellow Masterminds.

“A welcoming experience,” “crazy,” “spontaneous,” “out-of-the- ordinary,” “unique” and “cool”- these were a few words Montrosians used to describe Josh Week. This year the freshman wore crazy costumes as usual and completed tasks such as: saving the microwaves for the juniors at lunch, giving high fives to all juniors and science teachers, yelling “reporting for duty!” everytime they entered a classroom, and much more.

Congratulation to class of 2017 for becoming Masterminds – welcome to the upper school!