Oxford’s 2025 Homecoming dance, “A Night in San Fransokyo,” was hosted in the gym on Jan. 25. A reference to the movie Big Hero 6, HOCO was a night of vibrant energy accentuated by the elaborate decorations; and beneath it all, a committee of students who worked hard behind the scenes to organize the event.
The Sophomore Class Committee (SCC), responsible for hosting HOCO, is led by President Dominique Pagaduan and Vice President Yuri Yamachika. With the rest of the executive and committee members, they began organizing the event in August.
“We assigned each committee to their main focus: Activities creating the event planning sheet, Fundraising doing the budgeting and finding vendors, Spirit working on the HOCO asking contest and helping with general planning, and Publicity, Tech, and Historian working on all publicity, videos, and decor,” Pagaduan said. “It’s a lot easier said than done, but I am so proud of all the growth I’ve seen within my committee so far.”
Originally, SCC planned a Gotham City theme, based on the fictional DC Comics city. However, as planning progressed, certain challenges arose, holding them back.
“We didn’t consider other logistics of HOCO planning like physical decor. We realized pretty early on during the brainstorming stage that Gotham City was going to be pretty hard to execute,” Yamachika said. “Plus, since we knew we were going to be collaborating with ASB a lot and their Spirit commissioners were gonna have to plan a spirit week based on the theme, we wanted to choose a better one that would be easier to plan for everyone involved and also appeals to more of the population. Also, our ASB this year is doing a general superhero theme so to be cohesive, Dom and I thought Big Hero 6 would be good.”
Individual committees collaborated closely to tackle each aspect of their responsibilities.
“As a part of Activities, we’re primarily involved in a lot of how HOCO is going to go. Along with Publicity, we come up with decor ideas, and then with Fundraising, we come up with the food and budget plans. Then we also plan out the games, activities, and layout of the event,” Activities Commissioner Katelyn Duong said.
A significant part of the committee’s work also included raising the funds needed to make the event possible — everything from budgeting to deciding what food to serve.
“It’s my job to ensure that I contribute a good portion of work towards the fundraisers we create,” Fundraising Commissioner Sidney Doan said. “Specifically with HOCO, it’s our job to think of a variety of foods that people like, that people can eat, and foods that also meet dietary restrictions. We eventually decided on spam musubi which I took full responsibility for. I reached out to the vendor months in advance and persistently communicated to them about the pricing and how delivery and pickup will work.”
Having had each corner of the gym transformed into the dazzling city of San Fransokyo, SCC’s strong dedication and commitment truly shined through. From theme changes to final touches, each SCC member played a vital role in bringing HOCO to life.
