Valentina Baldini , Arts and Tech Editor
Featured graphic by Victoria Tremblay
Every year, the Student Coalition plans for the annual Junior Prom which took place this year on April 25, 7:00pm at the Italian Center in Norwalk. Since November, StuCo has been working hard to make sure Junior Prom was set and finalized, hoping to bring a fun night to all of the juniors.
StuCo meets every Wednesday to plan for school related events. Every spring, the juniors take on the challenge of preparing their prom. “The Student Coalition is the student government for the school. We do class projects every year, plan spirit days and school-wide events like the Pep Rally, and as juniors, we also plan Junior Prom,” Political Board President of StuCo Molly Shimmeck said.
StuCo plans many of the necessities during prom that make it such a special experience. “StuCo is in charge of picking the menu for prom, ordering decorations, sending out invitations, managing table assignments and creating the playlist,” Molly said.
Junior and StuCo member Maddy Peterson was most excited to see the decorations for the venue that the seniors set up. “ I was excited to see the amazing decorations that Stuco bought, prepared and set up for prom,” she said. “Recently, we worked on making the decorations for the tables and the room.”
This year, the theme for Junior Prom was taken after the classic novel taught every year: The Great Gatsby. “When StuCo sent out a poll on our Class of 2026 Instagram, a lot of people seemed to want a fancy and elegant vibe,” Molly said. “Since every junior this year has read The Great Gatsby in their English class, we thought it would be a fun and relevant theme for prom.”
StuCo was in charge of decorating the venue, which goes off of the theme. “For decorations, we thought that a 1920s Great Gatsby look with black and gold decorations and an “art deco” theme would be a great blend of a classy and relevant feel,” Molly said. “Since the senior class of StuCo decorates the room on prom day, the juniors just needed to supply and order all the decorations online, through closets around the school and decorations used in past years.”
For some, the best part of prom is getting their dresses and accessories. “My friends and I got our dresses from Revolve,” Maddy said. “ I would also recommend other students to get their dresses there as it has a wide selection and so many nice dresses.”
After planning the theme, StuCo also had to think of the invitations and the playlist that would play music throughout prom. “Once we knew the theme, we designed the invitations on Canva and sent the invitation out in a grade-wide email,” Molly said. “As for the playlist, the DJ requested around twenty through thirty songs so that they could understand the vibe and get some ideas for more music to play.”
Maddy was most proud of her work on the seating arrangements for prom, where StuCo organized the entire grade into tables of ten. “I helped out with the seating and table arrangements as well as other preparations,” she said. “StuCo is a great community and it has been really fun working together for prom.”
During prom, students got to choose to sit with their friends, and then StuCo organized the tables based off of that. “Everyone could “assign” their own table by finding a group of ten and then filling out a Google form that we sent out to the grade,” Molly said. “StuCo comes in during the matching process. For example, if one group submitted a table of four and another submitted a table of six, we would consolidate them into a full table of ten.”
For the first year, the Junior Prom hosted a raffle where students won a variety of prizes. “Senior Prom has a huge post-prom party with many raffle prizes. To give the juniors something similar to look forward to we are going to hold a raffle for about fourteen through fifteen prizes at the end of prom night,” Molly said. “Among other prizes, we are raffling off a NinjaCremi, Mini Theragun, local gift cards, and AirPod Pros.”
Molly believes every student should have attended prom for a memorable night. “You only get two proms in high school, and I’ve been looking forward to prom ever since I was a freshman,” she said. “I was so excited for the entire grade to be all together, dress up, dance, and make amazing memories.”
