A year ago, Head of Upper Campus Eve Kulbieda went missing without a trace. However, during the 2026 Pinewood Lip Sync, she returned, making her first appearance in more than a year. To the school’s surprise, Kulbieda had secretly become a student in the senior class of 2026, doing homework, taking tests, and even joining the Associated Student Body.
“All I had to do was fake an American accent,” Kulbieda said. “I just showed up to school one day, pretended to be American, and nobody suspected a thing.”
Many students collaborated with Kulbieda in the classroom, but not all students think they left a good impression.
“I was so geeked when I worked with her on our literature presentation,” senior Braxton Kimura said.
Similarly, senior Billy Lloyd felt betrayed after working with Kulbieda on his AP Government current events presentation.
“I thought that she was a fellow procrastinator,” Lloyd said. “I did my part last minute on my way to class. But during class, I found out she did it the night before and spent our in-class work time spying on me.”
However, going undercover as a senior exposed Kulbieda to risks that she did not anticipate.
The week after the winter formal, Kulbieda seemed to have contracted senioritis.
“I rarely see her in class,” senior Dhruv Gupta said.
“She’s always gone eating lunch at Safeway or Sizzling Lunch.”
Kulbieda isn’t planning to punish those who insulted her and is instead focusing on implementing changes based on her undercover work.
“One of the things that surprised me the most was the amount of homework that us students were getting,” Kulbieda said. “I stayed up all night trying to finish homework, and I can’t imagine the pressure students are under.”
Due to the sheer amount of work assigned in art classes, for example, Kulbieda plans to glue sketchbooks to the desks, making it impossible to bring them home.
Other times, however, Kulbieda found that she was not challenged enough, such as in AP Statistics.
“There wasn’t a single test all year,” Kulbieda said. “All I had to do was lecture notes and partner quizzes.”
For Kulbieda, this experience has been life-changing, and she said she was blown away by the expansive expectations Piinewood students face every day.
“From reading about dead moths and ancient Old English texts, to chi-squared goodness of fit tests and Riemann’s Rearrangement Theorem, I will definitely use what I’ve learned in my future,” Kulbieda said.
