Junior Semi-Formal Canceled

Members of the student government pose in the Dyker Beach Golf Course dining hall, where the Junior Semi-

Formal would have been held. Photo courtesy of Laura Rosas

By TOMMY MA and YESENIA PEREGRINA

After months of hard work, Midwood’s long-awaited first Junior prom is going to… Wait! Junior Semi-Formal is canceled?

During the summer, the student government sent out a Google form regarding whether people were interested in attending. The Google form showed that 294 juniors were interested. However, only 27 actually paid for it. As a result, the semi-formal had to be canceled.

“The student government has been trying to do this type of thing since freshman year,” said Comptroller Taskin Khan ’20. “We worked very hard on it, and we were very disappointed that not many people were interested in paying for it.”

Laura Rosas ’20, the junior vice president, said, “One of the main fears was that we wouldn’t have enough time to get the number of people to buy the tickets. So we pushed it later. We wanted to build up the hype, get people interested, and get them to go. As you can see, it didn’t go exactly as planned.” 

In early September, the student government met to organize all their information to present to Principal Michael McDonnell. In November, Mr. McDonnell approved the idea.

Mayor Tanisa Rahman ’20 said, “The juniors in the student council worked on it since June. We called 30 different venues in a week and finally decided on Dyker Beach Golf Course.” The site was located at 1030 86th St and 7th Ave.

In December, there was a section open on the online webstore for payments to come in. Students were given two options of payment: pay $105 now or leave a $50 deposit to hold their spot.

Junior President Jonathan Li ’20 said, “There was going to be a garden theme, a chocolate fountain, and a moving photo booth.”

Among the 27 students who paid were Ryan Chen ’20 and Gabriella Shalumov ’20. 

Chen said, “It’s very unfortunate that it was canceled because I was excited about it and was looking forward to it. It’s rare that we have occasions in which we all gather as a class. However, the pricing was very costly for a lot of people; under $100 would be reasonable.”

Shalumov said, “Considering the venue, it was a reasonable price. However, it was really stressful because it was right before the SAT. It would be better if it was after the SAT.”

As for future juniors, the steps are already there for them if they want to try again next year. They’ll just have to find people who are genuinely interested in going. 

“[Future juniors] should start the Junior-Semi Formal Committee earlier so that people in the community can build the hype with their friends,” said Rosas. “This would mean they’ll have pictures of everyone dressed up, having fun, and dancing. It was one of the main reasons that the student government pushed the formal. The yearbook comes out before prom happens.”

Li said, “In a weird case, I’m pretty happy. When the senior prom comes along, we’ll know what to work on based on the mistakes we’ve made with the Junior Semi-Formal.”