San José State held its annual homecoming pep rally on Wednesday at Seventh Street Plaza and current students and faculty assembled to kick off one of the campus’ main events of the year from golf carting leading up to the homecoming football game at home against the Utah State Aggies.
Homecoming festivities will include a week of fun-filled events to showcase Spartan spirit, according to the SJSU’s homecoming flier.
Jessica Perez, psychology and communication disorders senior, said homecoming is a big event for both SJSU and the city of San José.
“It's a very big week in general, not just for the school as well,” Perez said. “I think it's the best time to show what are some of your expectations for football game days this Saturday.”
The event consisted of band performances, a golf cart parade and cheerleading performances.
Civil engineering freshman Amrik Atwal said she enjoyed the display of school spirit.
“Just coming out with a bunch of people (is exciting),” Atwal said. “Today the cheerleaders performed really well.”
Aerospace engineering freshman Shreya Moghe said her experience with homecoming celebrations gave her a warm-welcoming experience rather than a culture shock.
Moghe said she didn’t come to the rally to celebrate the homecoming football game on Saturday, but was instead drawn by the excitement of the event.
“I’m loving the presentation and the color of the parade. It’s insane because I’m an international student, I’m not used to this,” Moghe said. “So I feel like it's amazing to see countries, education (and) cultures. It's not restricted, but you can tell that they follow systematically.”
Moghe, a transfer student from India, said students in San José have different priorities in comparison to students in her home country, where education always comes first.
“There's your academics and also extracurriculars are all like your No. 1 priority,” Moghe said.
She said learning to balance everything in a different way just isn’t the same as in India.
“It’s not the same in India because a lot of schools in India just advocate for proficiency in education and proficiency in maybe sports or athletics,” Moghe said.
She said that while she may or may not be a passionate SJSU football fan, the festivities and community shined light on what it means to be a Spartan.
“I hope that they win and they just show up and show out,” Perez said.
