The Academy Ambassadors ended the semester with their winter social on Tuesday, Dec. 12. The event included games such as badminton, craft making, and the annual gingerbread house making competition. Ambassadors were able to bond with students from other academies and work together to make the best gingerbread house.

“The Academy Ambassadors is a big group at Westwood and not everyone gets to see each other,” Altan Nagji ‘19 said. “The winter social is just a day in the year where everyone comes together and haves fun.”

The five different academies, Health Science, Visual Performing Arts, Business and Industry, STEM, and Public Service, have all been active doing job shadows, community tours, elementary outreach, and parent nights. With many individual projects going on, the ambassadors had little time to get to know one another. The winter social helped these ambassadors become closer while having fun and working together in a little competition.

“The social’s just a good time for all the ambassadors to destress and have fun,” Chris Fan ‘20 said. “I think the outcome was good since so many people showed up and participated in the competition.”

In the gingerbread house making contest, groups were split up randomly. Each group was given a box for their base, some graham crackers, and frosting to make their house. Everyone brought their own supplies as well, such as candy and salts to decorate the outside. In the end, the group of STEM girls won again, defending their victory from last year.

“This was a work of cooperation,” Kelsia Adil ‘19 said. “We divided up our tasks: the people who were going to build the structure and the people who were going to design. In the end, we had five minutes left and our house was falling apart, and it took all of us to put it back together.”

After winter break, the ambassadors will start the new year off with a breakfast on Jan. 8, in which they will invite business professionals to share their experiences in the workplace.