SDA hosted its annual Making the Choice Night for current middle schoolers faced with deciding on their future high schools for this next school year Wednesday evening.

Various clubs, sports teams, and electives set up tables to show the prospective students what SDA has to offer. The SDA Boys Soccer team enthusiastically promoted their program and tried to gain recruits, while Robotics showcased their award-winning robots and the ASL class demonstrated their language to parents and kids.

At 6 p.m., a steady flow of parents and kids from various middle schools around the area, mainly Diegueno, Oak Crest, and Earl Warren, and Carmel Valley Middle School, began coming in to look at the club and elective options and collect brochures. Following this, they filed into the gym to hear speeches from SDA’s new principal, Bjorn Paige, as well as the ASB President Zack Kanzler, junior.

Beginning at 7 p.m., the crowd headed out to attend four 15-minute sessions of their choice until 8:15. Students as well as teachers led these sessions which focused on specific aspects of SDA, including electives, classes, sports programs, and the AP program.

“I was here to translate to all the Spanish-speaking families and also help other parents get to their classrooms,” said junior Rosa Tlatempa. “[The incoming students] were really enthusiastic to know where everything was and to learn about classes, and it was nice helping them out.”

The eighth graders got to experience an early immersion in SDA culture and to begin thinking if this school is the right place for them during the next four years.

“It’s really cool. It seems really nice and everybody feels like they really care about each other,” said Diegueno eighth grader Cailyn Buchanan.