For some people at Manhattan High hearing the words SubDeb committee makes them associate them with a negative connotation.

This is in part because of our SubDeb initiation and the similarities of the organization to a sorority.

Most teams at Manhattan High have some type of initiation that isn’t always spoken about, like the football team. But SubDeb is not all about the “hazing” that goes on for initiation. There isn’t a good reason that SubDeb is associated with negative thoughts. We do things for the community.

The committee as whole makes the theme of the dance and basically makes everything happen for everyone who attends. The proceeds that are collected from ticket sales for the dance are given to organizations around town. So the dance is not only for the students who go to have a good time, it’s there to help the community also.

In addition to planning the dance all year, leading up to the dance we participate in community services. For instance this winter, we chose as a committee to sponsor a family for Christmas which means all 30 of us girls have chosen an item or two to wrap and give to the family that is in need of  basic items.

On top of the services we are a part of, we do have a night of initiation that sophomores go through. The big initiation that has everyone thinking a negative thought about us only happens for around three hours on Monday morning. Following those three hours the girls make the incomers feel welcomed by having fun activities for the SubDeb girls to participate in like movie night and ice cream night.  

There are people who say our SubDeb fun week is “just a way for rich white girls to act like they’re in a sorority.” In a way we are like a sorority to an extent because we are a group of girls who have a week filled with fun things like rush week, but it’s not really the same.

We are a group that come from different backgrounds and types of families who set a week aside to bring in new sophomores to a group that makes a dance for Manhattan High students to attend and have fun at it while raising money and helping organizations.