This edition of the Student Spotlight is about Megan Wiarda. Megan is currently a senior at Academy High and has been here since her sophomore year. She will be going to Indiana University next year. Megan has organized various school dances and events in the past years, including two homecoming dances. Most recently, she has planned the graduation and prom for this year's upperclassmen.
After she transferred, Megan realized that the school did not have dances. After having such a great time at homecoming in Mattoon, she wanted to give Academy High students the same experience. At the time, she had not planned a dance but with the help of other students and faculty they put together Academy High’s first school homecoming dance. “Academy High gave me the opportunity to take initiative and plan something from scratch and execute it.” Megan was pleased with the event’s success, and went on to plan more events.
Megan also planned Academy High’s first prom. She worked with Yoon Freund and the AHPA to plan this event and other students have also pitched in to help. In order to raise money for the event, they sold candy grams for Valentine’s Day and held a bake sale. They also planned some activities to keep prom night fun, such as games and a Wii. The prom lasted all night (supervised by parents) and everyone had a great time thanks to Megan.
The process of planning these events can be quite stressful as you need to situate a venue, entertainment, food and many other details but seeing the end result makes it a valuable experience. “To see it on the day of, so nicely decorated and seeing everyone enjoy all the hard work you put in is probably the best part of the experience.”
