Students gathered in the courtyard Tuesday, May 20, for the annual Senior Tea Party — but this year it included a unique twist that will be implemented moving forward. Two weeks prior, non-senior club members received emails inviting them to begin creating posters for the event. This format of decorating posters for seniors instead of presenting speeches is new for the Archer community. In previous years, students gave speeches for the senior leaders of each club and activity on campus. This year, however, each student group created individualized posters for their senior leaders, and the rest of the student body walked around and left notes on each poster.
In past years, the hot weather and length of the individualized speeches made it difficult for students to stay engaged, according to Fitness and Wellness teacher Natalie Coleman. This year, however, she noted that many students shared positive feedback about the new format.
“Students loved it because it was more interactive,” Coleman said. “From what I’ve heard in the past is that it’s been boring and [students] just kind of zone out. But this time, they were able to move around.”
After all of the seniors involved in clubs were honored by name, the whole community was given 15 minutes to leave post-it notes on both the individual senior posters and a larger bulletin board for the whole graduating class.
Senior Nat Huang said in past years, sitting outside to listen to speeches for seniors she didn’t know was often difficult. She said that since there are so many students involved in senior positions within clubs, the speeches would often get monotonous.
“I liked it because it was a lot quicker and more expedited,” Huang said. “I think oftentimes the tributes are really nice and wonderful, but especially with such an involved class, the sentiments can get kind of repetitive.”
Huang said getting a physical souvenir from the day that she could keep was a highlight for her.
“It was nice to get the posters too because we were able to take them home,” Huang said. “It’s less of a fleeting thing — it’s a solid piece of paper that you’re able to keep and have memories of.”
However, not everyone liked the change. Sophomore Edie Wyles said she worried that this new presentation would take away from the distinction that personal speeches had. Wyles had been looking forward to presenting a speech to her older sister.
“I just think it’s more sentimental being able to talk directly to the senior,” Wyles said. “I really wanted to give [my sister] a speech, and I’ve been waiting to do that for so long and having it stripped from me at the last moment was really sad.”
Wyles said the quicker process was nice considering that it is usually hot outside and can be a lengthy process. The ceremony this year also included music and picnic blankets for students to sit on, which Wyles said added to the ambiance and excitement for the event.
“I think the speeches were a lot more meaningful,” Wyles said. “Because the seniors get to have a nice moment with the person that’s doing [the speech], it’s nicer for the seniors to have more time [spent on recognizing] them.”
