MCHS will host several celebratory events before the seniors’ graduation on May 18.
Seniors’ final day of class is on May 10 this year, so there will be a multitude of events occurring to mark the end of the year for the class of 2024. Some of these events include Decision Day and a Senior Picnic on May 2, Distinguished Warrior Banquet on May 5, Senior Awards Night on May 8, New Elementary Walk on May 10 and finally graduation on May 18.
The goal of the next few weeks is to celebrate and congratulate the class of 2024.
“It’s just a good time,” says Dr. Jeff Prickett, Principal of Upper Campus. “Two or three weeks to kind of really celebrate and soak in all that they’ve accomplished and recognize them in different ways.”
The senior celebrations kicked off with this year’s White Coat Ceremony that took place on Apr. 15.
In the start of May is when the next senior events occur. Decision Day is an event where all of the classes gather in the gym to celebrate the seniors and see their next possible steps.
“Decision Day is a much larger event, the entire upper campus attends it,” says Curtis Menke, College and Career counselor here at MCHS. “We bring in some extra technology, projection screens, and we scroll through institution by institution, employer by employer, military branch, every type of next step option. We just publicly recognize who’s taking their next step, whether it be MCC, military, four-years, technical schools, certain employers, etc.”
On May 2, the Senior Picnic will take place during lunch periods after Decision Day.
Dr. Prickett describes the Distinguished Warrior Banquet as an event where 150 seniors who qualify for distinguished warriors will receive a stole that they can wear on graduation day.
Prickett describes the Senior Awards Night that will take place on May 8.
“Senior Awards Night is where another 150 plus students are going to get some type of award,” says Prickett. “Anything from honor roll to full ride scholarships to college, and we’re going to unveil that on May 8.”
This fun night includes outside organizations to present the awards to their recipients.
“We invite partners from those organizations that award the scholarships to come to be part of the ceremony,” says Menke. “The McHenry Lions Club is one local partner we invite a representative from to come and help present the award to their recipients, so it really is a fun night and it’s cool to see good kids have good things come to them.”
For the first time, MCHS invites Seniors to walk through their old Elementary schools on their final day to look back on old memories before graduating.
“Seniors are going to take a bus on their last day on May 10 to walk back through their elementary schools,” says Prickett. “It’s going to be great.”
To complement the infamous Senior Sunrise in the beginning of the year, the Senior Sunset will take place at the Peterson Park beach on the evening of May 10.
Finally, graduation will take place on May 18 around 11 a.m with, and graduation practice will take place on May 17 around 8:30 a.m.
While these events are celebratory and exciting, some seniors may feel stressed as the events are so close together.
Senior Victor Camacho expresses the gratitude he has for the Senior Walk, however, with it being on the last day of classy, he is disappointed that he won’t spend his final day of high school in high school.
“While all of these great ceremonies and events truly help seniors put their final weeks at ease, I do believe that the events are very clustered together,” says Camacho. “With high school coming to an end, seniors are wanting to cherish final moments, but instead, get to spend their final day of high school going through the Senior Walk that takes place in the elementary schools. While it is a great event, the last thing we want is to spend our final day of high school not actually in the high school.”
The Class of 2024 was unique to say the least as they started out high school online in the middle of the pandemic, (how seniors feel about it quote)
“It genuinely feels surreal,” says Camacho. “I feel as if the loss of my first year of high school has made everything seem so much shorter. I seriously feel as if I was online a few months ago. It has all gone by too fast, but it is a great accomplishment, and I am proud of my peers and I.”