Angel’s Advocacy takes the Freshmen Cup

Tina Angel’s advocacy winning the Puma Peers Freshman Cup (The Puma Prensa / Chase Soylu Chee)

By Chase Soylu Chee, News Editor & Video Editor

Every year, the Puma Peers—upperclassmen—work together to introduce freshmen students into campus life and culture through activities and an overarching competition called the Freshmen Cup.

Whether you have already participated in the Freshmen Cup or are in the games now, it is a defining part of being a freshman puma. For the first quarter, Tina Angel’s Advocacy took the cup with a whopping 208 points. 

The Freshmen Cup is a quarterly event where advocacies compete for points through Puma Peer activities or Leadership competitions and spirit days. All of these points get tallied until the end of the quarter, where a winner is chosen, and our current winner is Angel’s Advocacy. 

For Angel, winning the cup has always come naturally, with her last advocacy winning three quarters of the Freshman Cup. It was a huge expectation for her when she had such a good first group, and having “this group follow the same pattern was just amazing.”

While winning the cup, Angel’s advocacy was consistently top three, so winning the tight race was exciting. Freshman Daisy Riley found winning “impressive because out of all of the odds, we were the ones to win, because we were the underdogs.” 

Nearing the final events, the Puma Peers of Angel’s advocacy ramped up the incentives. Junior Puma Peer Elliott Thomasson was shocked because he “didn’t realize how many points we had, we kind of noticed last week and did extra encouragement and made sure they participated in all the spirit weeks.”

As a reward, the class got a pizza party and a temporary golden trophy from the Puma Peers. Advocacy senator Victoria Cansenco felt “super great… [and it was] nice having to get pizza.” 

Competing for the Freshman Cup and seeing the numerous classwide activities held by the Puma Peers, the advocacies grew into a community. Riley found the activities entertaining, stating that the cup “unifies our school and our class.”

Similarly, the Puma Peers saw the impact that the activities had on the Freshman class. Thomasson found it as a positive way to allow freshmen to interact in “positive ways. They’re playing games and getting a bit more competitive.”

Looking down the road, Angel’s advocacy is prepared to remain victorious and win for the rest of the year. Thomasson and his fellow Puma Peers will work together to incentivize the advocacy and “make sure everyone’s participating, everyone wants to dress up, and everyone feels supported.”

As the advocacy moves forward, Angel remains confident that the advocacy’s teamwork and spirit will keep the momentum going. “I think the best thing you can do is model good behavior. If I’m spirited, if I participate, they’re more likely to, so I think we [need to] continue to promote that and encourage that.”