Arriving one day earlier than the rest of the school, the class of 2016 participated in freshman orientation on Wednesday, Aug. 22.

Freshman Paige Wiebe thought the pep assembly started the year off well.

“I really liked the welcoming,” Wiebe said. “Everybody was really excited and it was a good way to start the day.”

Student body president Lisa Galvan agreed that the pep assembly was successful.

“The pep assembly [went well] because we taught [the freshmen] a lot of the traditions at Mill Valley. They got to meet some of the teachers and just get a feel for what the school is like,” Galvan said. “The freshmen have a positive attitude about starting a new school year.”

According to Galvan, having student ambassadors help student council made the 346 freshmen, the largest class in school history, more manageable.

“[Having so many freshmen] made it a little harder to control but we just made more groups and had the student ambassadors help out,” Galvan said. “It hasn’t been too chaotic.”

After the pep assembly, students broke into small groups and went through rotations. The rotations included touring the school, taking school pictures, participating in games and going to their lockers.

“I think the most successful parts of the day were the rotations,” student body vice-president Kylie Andres said. “It ran more smoothly than [in] past years and it was easier to keep kids where they were supposed to be.”

Freshman Henry Cahill enjoyed the ice cream social at the end of the day.

“I love that there is so much good food here in the cafeteria as opposed to middle school, and the ice cream was awesome,” Cahill said. “But the games in the gym were really fun too.”