Out the Door in 2024: A look into Grad Committee
Photo Credit: Angie Ng
This year’s Grad Committee consists of Nina Mazzucco (12) as Grad Chair, as well as Kayla Szilagyi (12), Amy Tran (12), Melissa Xie (12), Ava Low (12), and Sidonie Lee (12) as Grad Committee members. Hamber’s Grad Committee is in charge of planning, funding, and carrying out major grad events, like prom and the graduation ceremony. Additionally, they host events like Grad Karaoke, Valentine’s Grams, Spirit Weeks, and GQ Day.
To conclude this school year, the Grad Committee will be hosting a few more events. “We are organizing prom, which consists of finding a DJ, photo booths, choosing a theme, designing the tickets, the photo booth borders, choosing a colour pallet, and even more,” said Tran. “We will also do a few more spirit weeks and organize the actual graduation event, in which our next step is getting measurements for grad gowns.”
All the funding for these events comes from Grad Committee’s hard work. “We don’t have funding to begin with, but we fundraise throughout the year. Our biggest fundraiser is grad hoodies, with Valentine’s Grams as our second biggest,” said Tran. Lee added, “We had this idea to sell baked goods, but there were a lot of issues [regarding] sugar content.”
Photo Credit: Teagan Nichol
Tran, Lee, and Mazzucco all felt that, while being on Grad Committee, there are obstacles in different areas. “It's hard running an organization when at times, it can feel like it's a lot of work,” said Mazzucco. “Additionally, there's a lot of pressure. People expect a lot from you…but I would say all of us have done an incredible job overcoming [obstacles] and just working really well with other people to get stuff done.”
“One obstacle we have really had to face is participation. Our year in particular is not very connected as a whole, so it’s often hard to get everyone together,” said Tran.
Hamber’s administration also plays a large role in organizing grad events. “Hamber staff are very supportive. They're always helping us, whether it's just us going to the office to grab supplies or our teacher sponsor, Ms. B. Panesar (English), literally running the whole thing, and Ms. E. McKeen (English) also working alongside us to help plan events and stuff like that. And of course, Ms. M. Jensen (Administration), who oversees a lot of our bigger projects,” said Mazzucco.
“The office admin are angels when it comes to helping the Grad Committee. They've helped a ton with providing access to different resources we’ve needed. Mr. J. Lam (Accountant) has also been extremely helpful when we’ve had to deal with money and using SchoolCashOnline,” Tran said. “As for our teacher sponsors, Ms. Panesar and Ms. McKeen, they have provided us with a ton of support and given us a lot of helpful information about Hamber’s previous Grad Committees and how they have done things.”