students celebrate a heavenly prom night at the silver creek country club

students celeBrate a heaVenly Prom niGht at the silVer creeK country cluB

REPORTING BY ISAAC RIOS • PHOTOS & DESIGN BY CHLOE LUU

the senior prom committee hosted the junior and senior prom “A Heavenly Night” on April 29 from 7 to 11 p.m. at Silver Creek Valley Country Club. Unlike the 20202021 prom, juniors attended this year’s prom. Director of Community Development Laura Gordon Reska worked with senior advisers Ariana Rodriguez, Loren Schwinge and Esther Chen as well as the prom committee in order to plan the decorations, layout and choose the venue starting in October.

“You have to plan months in advance and at the time, COVID-19 was pretty strong, so I had to pick a place that would meet pandemic needs,” Reska said.

All Saturday dates at the Silver Creek Valley Country Club were already reserved, so a Friday date was chosen. As a result, 115 juniors and seniors—48% of those cohorts—were absent that Friday, and 28 went to school but left early to get ready for prom. Most teachers and faculty were aware of the mass absences which resulted in the creation of an email thread where teachers talked about the absences of their students.

Upon arrival at the venue, students took many photos in front of the entrance to mark the momentous occasion.

Senior Blue Cuenco was even more fascinated by the inside of the venue.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Cuenco said. “I didn’t know what the venue looked like because I’ve never been here before, but it’s really nice.”

Science teacher Vivien Chern, who volunteered to chaperone, saw prom as an opportunity to interact with her students.

“I thought it would be cool to see my students outside of the classroom setting,” Chern said. “And after a year and a half of quarantine and the changes to the [flow] of the school year, it’s nice to bring a lot of that back here and see the juniors and seniors being able to experience that.”

Upperclassmen enjoyed an engaging night at prom and they hope to fully cherish this meaningful event.

“I want [prom] to be a core memory,” junior Alisa Tran said. “I want to have these pictures [of prom] and look back and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I had so much fun when I was a junior.’”

Attendees spend the night on the dance floor singing and dancing to the music.

Juniors Siddhartha Sarvepally, Kate Feng, Belinda Ho, Kelly Nguyen, April Nguyen and Reya Yeddula.

Senior Sainiranay Mantrala and junior Abdoulie Ceesay.

Seniors Raiden Miller, Quynh Tran and Ranveer Saini.

Juniors Belinda Ho, Mahima Bhella, Kelly Nguyen, Taya Mapakdee and an outside guest.

Senior Rohan Khattri and an outside guest.

Students frequently visited the terrace throughout the night to enjoy the view, eat food and take photos.

From left to right: Math teacher Esther Chen and seniors Sainirnay Mantrala and Ashritha Cheeyandira pose for a picture in front of Silver Creek Country Club.

Students took advantage of the photobooth, taking pictures with the white and gold setup throughout the night.