Prom, grad night, senior sunrise, and senior sunset are must haves for a “proper senior experience” but there should be more opportunities for seniors to get together during their last semester of high school.
Some students at Kennedy take it upon themselves to organize various unofficial events that students can attend, but those events tend to be made for a targeted group of individuals and are unsupervised by any staff or faculty members. Though feeling pressure to attend for the memories, having large student-run events can ultimately get people hurt. If there were more school led events for seniors to attend to, it would more likely be safer.
Keanna Bantay, a senior at Kennedy, stated, “On social media, there will be other students at their school’s various events, and it would be fun if we had more events like that too. I recently saw some students on a post participating in a senior picnic.”
In other parts of the United States, some activities that are organized are those such as senior picnics, bonfires, and barbeques. Opportunities like these allow for students to get together at pre-organized events and share similar experiences and make memories.
Schools such as Arnold O. Beckham High School are participating in additional activities such as neon nights, winter formal, decision day, and a senior picnic. While Kennedy does not have to participate in so many additional activities, including a few of these is completely possible.
As students transfer from their teenage years to adulthood, it is important to check off various bucket list to-dos: to try new things and participate in school activities or events.
Abigail Corrales, a senior at Kennedy stated, “It would be more memorable of a senior year if there were more opportunities for me to hang out with my friends especially because I see my friends from other schools doing more. I would be interested in another dance for us to attend since we won’t have any past high school.”
For the funding portion of the senior activities, similarly to what the various magnets do, the school can also host various fundraising events at popular restaurants and such — serving to also encourage students to spend time together outside of the classroom.
Additionally, many students focused on their school work throughout their high school years and so having more senior events to participate in would allow for seniors to have a form of “last hurrah” before moving onto the next chapter of their lives. The remaining senior events are prom, senior sunset, senior breakfast, graduation, and gradnite.
