Senior classes keep traditions alive
Before the year even began, senior girls met up with brushes and pinterest boards to craft their “senior jeans.” Senior Casey Patten was one of them.
“I painted my jeans with a lot of other girls from our grade outside in August, and we shared paint and ribbon,” Patten said.
The idea, originating from colleges in the 1990s, has had a resurgence during the age of social media.
These jeans around the school halls give seniors a sense of pride, and allow them to kick off the school year celebrating.
“It’s really fun having a physical object to commemorate senior year,” Patten said.
On Friday, May 1 the halls will be filled with University of Illinois t-shirts, Roll tide hats and college crewnecks.
May 1 is the deadline for students at most universities to accept their admission and commit. This means across the country, seniors celebrate their futures by wearing t-shirts and representing their new school for the next four years.
“I committed to Western Michigan for cheerleading back in December, but I’m super excited for decision day to wear my t-shirt and see where everyone else is going… it’s always super interesting to hear where someone has committed,” Dron said.
Even seniors who haven’t committed to college for sports are able to wear their school colors with pride, and post their photos in celebration.
Aside from college decisions, a major highlight of senior year is prom. This is especially true at DGS, where prom is a senior-focused event; juniors, sophomores and freshmen can only attend by invitation. To many, prom is not just a final formal event, but a way to participate in something that’s classically high school before leaving DGS.
Such a big event necessitates meticulous planning, which falls into the hands of the senior Class Board. Mr. Dufur, a Spanish teacher, is one of the sponsors of the senior Class Board, and explains the role of the senior Class Board.
“The senior Class Board has a group of students who are working on planning prom…We decide on the menu for prom. We decide on any sort of decorations for prom,” Dufur said.
Although much of the planning process is the responsibility of the senior Class Board, Dufur explains how the input of the rest of the student body is considered.
“We decide the theme, we come up with theme ideas, [then] present that to the senior class to vote on,” Dufur said.
This year’s theme is Night at the Bayou, which was the winning choice from a Google Form sent out to the senior class earlier this year. In fact, Dufur says the senior Class Board typically starts prom planning early to ensure that the final event is as best as possible for the seniors.
“We started talking to our kids, really at the turn of this semester. That’s when we really started to brainstorm,” Dufur said.
That brainstorming is a crucial part of bringing the magic to prom night. Many seniors see prom as the biggest event of their year, apart from graduation, so it’s important to the Class Board to consider every aspect of the night, down to the food their peers would most enjoy.
Activities Director Mrs. Martinez recognizes the importance of prom as a senior tradition. As Activities Director, she works closely with both students and teachers.
“As the activities director, I have the opportunity to oversee student leadership, student events, student activities, and I have the opportunity to support our sponsors and students to be able to pursue their passions,” Martinez said.
For Martinez, prom is the culmination of the connections students make within DGS-affiliated activities.
“Seniors have their celebratory moments within their small communities for clubs and sports [but] I think kids look foward to prom because it’s the last party celebration, with their classmates to be able to dance and have a fancy meal and enjoy some fireworks and just be together and have those last celebratory moments together as a class,” Martinez said.
A major contributor to the success of prom is the venue itself. This year’s prom will be held at Bolingbrook Golf Club on Saturday, April 25.
“For the last six years, we’ve had pretty much a standing contract with Bolingbrook Golf Club, because they have a space that’s large enough for all of us–it’s a beautiful space. When the sun starts going down, you look at the sunset over the golf course. It’s awesome…Plus, we can have fireworks outside, too,” Dufur said.
While prom is an established tradition, DGS seniors this year are also looking forward to the return of Grad Nite.
Whether it be the Senior Sunrise at the beginning of the year, or Senior Assassin at the end of the year, senior traditions have always been important as graduating students reflect on their time in high school while looking forward to the future.
To Martinez, senior traditions are representative of the growth of the graduating class since their first step into the hallways of DGS. One of Martinez’s favorite activities is always Mad Dash at the beginning of the school year, a fun orientation for incoming freshmen. It’s not just the freshmen Martinez thinks about during that event, but the seniors they will become.
“All the freshmen are sitting in there, admiring what the seniors are saying, and then those freshmen are doing all the things that the seniors said, and then you see that development, and you’re like, whoa, it just happened again … It’s good. It’s just like this continuation,” Martinez said.
Senior activities aren’t just about individual growth–they’re also about the community students have found in each other throughout their time at DGS, and the impact they have made on existing communities in the school.
“I think that all these things are just important moments to allow kids to feel pride in their school, but also connections for their celebration of all the things that they’ve accomplished together,” Martinez said.