Prom committees paving new path

This year, the Class of 2020 has deviated from traditional junior prom planning by forming a committee of juniors outside the class officers who assist in planning the event.

The junior class prom committee includes three non-class officer juniors: Alena Jarrett, Mia Gunderson and Ritika Kuppam. Secretary Alex Lee and class representative Claire Smerdon work as liaisons between the committee and other class officers.

The committee has a vague timeline of goals they would like to accomplish, but because prom is still months away, nothing has been set in stone.

According to Smerdon, class officers are still responsible for organizing and booking food, buses and the DJ, but they hope having extra creative minds should get ideas flowing and lead to a better prom.

“We can generate more ideas and creativity, as well as give our classmates an opportunity to get involved in the biggest event of our grade,” Smerdon said.

The committee has had its share of struggles with communication so far, largely due to demanding junior year schedules making it difficult for members of the committee and class office to meet.

“Everyone is super busy junior year, so it can be hard for committee members to meet with officers, especially as a group, since they aren’t taking leadership,” Smerdon said. “For future offices, when making a prom committees, I think they should go into it with a distinct plan on how they intend to run the committee and the expectations they have for the committee.”

The Class of 2021 has followed their example, organizing their own prom committee to assist in the planning process of booking a venue.

The sophomore prom committee is also made up of three students: sophomores Nitya Marimuthu, Allison Hartley and Grace Stuart.

Although their junior prom is more than a year away, they know how crucial it is to think of ideas early to have a successful prom.

“We formed a prom committee to brainstorm ideas to make our prom even better than last year’s junior prom,” Stuart said. “We wanted to have students choose, not just the leadership class, in order to put out ideas into a fun school even that a lot of people attend.”

The senior class doesn’t have a prom committee, but treasurer Enzo Coglitore noted it could have been beneficial for last year’s junior prom because it would have allowed for outside voices to pitch in.

According to Coglitore, the senior class  has a solid plan for senior prom after learning from last year’s event.  

“Junior prom was not so much a struggle as it was a rush because it crept up on us,” Coglitore said. “We feel like something like a prom committee would not be useful now that we have figured out a system and our way of doing things.”