The Junior Prom has been a staple of The Morgan School for as long as students can remember, with many students being left with unforgettable experiences. This year may be different, however, since with less student participation overall, the Junior Prom seemed to be much more expensive this year. Mainly due to a subpar effort on the students’ part to participate in the school’s fundraisers.

The Junior Prom for this year is going to be held at Amarantes Sea Cliff, which was decided via an online poll sent out to sophomore students. Amarantes is a gorgeous seaside event venue that’s located in New Haven just under half an hour away. It’s known for its beautiful waterfront views as well as its pristine event spaces complimented by a well-thought-out interior design.

This year’s Junior Prom was put together by the Class of 2026’s Student Government and supervising teachers, Karla Rivadeniera and Colleen Couch. Two members that were a major part of the planning were Karla Duque, the Vice President, and Jacquelyn Ciarleglio, the Secretary. “I mainly helped with planning the Junior Prom by making all of the flyers, and putting it out on our social media,” Ciarleglio explained. “I’ve also been helping at the table in the lunchroom for students to buy tickets during the lunches that I’m in.”

The Student Government throughout the school helped put the event together through location selections, ticket sales, promotional pieces, and fundraisers used to gain funds for the prom. Not only to make it the best it can be, but to make the entry price of 85$ less expensive for when students attend, because without the fundraisers, the cost of tickets could’ve exceeded at least 100$.

With all this promotion, however, an issue that’s been worrying the Student Government and teachers is the lack of participation among the student body. Members point to the past, where many large events that were supposed to be hits with the school either ended up missing the mark or getting postponed indefinitely. One big example of this is the currently postponed PowderPuff, which was scheduled to be held during the fall of 2024. This date however later got pushed out due to problems with participation and attendance, leading to an issue of not being able to make any funds for the event. This push out turned into an indefinite hiatus for the event a few months ago, when teachers and Student Government members realized that planning a date around events like SAT’s and general testing in the Spring would be very difficult for them to manage. “Our biggest fundraiser this year was supposed to be Powder Puff, but that just ended up being a flop.” Duque said.

The issues with funding mainly stemmed from aforementioned issues surrounding student participation within Morgan, as it was the main culprit for Powderpuffs postponement. Student participation this year has seemed to be on a slow decline as shown by the price of the tickets for this year’s prom, which were a whopping 85$ a person, double the cost of prom tickets from last year which were 40$. Since, on top of the hiatus for Powderpuff, many fundraisers seemed to miss the mark within the student body. “Most of our troubles come from fundraising itself,” Duque explained. “There hasn’t been a huge participation on that part, which is a reason why the tickets are so expensive this year.”

However, participation hasn’t been a complete failure for fundraising, with one of the biggest events being Swoosh for Change, an event where people gather to watch the students compete in a game of basketball against teachers from the school. The event this year had a very high attendance rate because of the cheap tickets, being only 5$ a person, and by offering many snacks and beverages for students while watching and hanging out at the game. The event also had a big halftime show where kids from Rock Band performed for the attendees, being a highlight for many students alike.

With this event, it was able to make enough of an impact to where the prom was able to be funded just enough and come to fruition, the only problem however was the price of the tickets for prom, which as mentioned before were 85$ a person. On top of the low participation, the planners had to also deal with the problem concerning a 20% gratuity rate, which was needed to pay for expenses such as food, space, and a DJ. All these expenses made it so over 80 tickets needed to be sold so the Prom could come to fruition, and with each ticket being as expensive as they are, it was going to be a close cut to whether or not the Prom would be held at Amarantes. There was a small bit of hope, however, as many students talked about bringing friends and +ones to the Prom, which could help boost the sale of tickets just enough. “With lack of participation from our grade, I wouldn’t be surprised if we barely made the cut,” Duque explains. “…[though] a lot of people are bringing dates and friends from other schools as well, so that adds to the ticket sales somewhat.”

While the Prom this year has dealt with much more difficulties than past years due to a mix of factors considering participation and hiatuses. If things go well, this year’s Prom seems to be shaping up to be an event that many students will be able to enjoy with their friends and dates. And may even become an event that many students will never forget. “I just think with the amount of people talking about it, I think it’ll fall into plan.” Ciarleglio said. “I have really high hopes and think our [Proms] future looks really good.”