by Miles Eller, staff writer
Every senior student dreams of a perfect prom and send off into their college years. After months of planning and fighting for one, the senior student council announced that the senior prom will be held at the Academy of Sciences on April 8th with a “night in the enchanted forest” theme.
The Academy Sciences was a dream venue for many of the students on the planning committee because of the perfect atmosphere and excitement the venue would bring, despite the possible expenses that threatened the committee’s ideas. “We were debating for a while about the Academy of Sciences because of how expensive it was. We wanted prom to be accessible but also a nice area and atmosphere,” says ASB member and communicator for the prom committee, Lam T. “We toured other venues like oracle park and hotels but they weren’t what we wanted.”
The Academy of Sciences costed $44,000 to rent out for prom, while the committee were only given $13,000 as a budget which included paying for food, multiple photo booths, and 360 cameras to make it an inviting experience.
The team’s determination to get the Academy venue led them to searching for ways to raise money to meet the steep price they needed to rent the venue, on top of the other expenses such as food, decorations, and activities. The planning committee were able to secure donations from the PTSA and the alumni association, as well as volunteered and planned fundraisers such as bake sales and marathon volunteer work that brought funds to the committee and put them a step closer to locking down their aspired prom venue.
The funding the committee received from the PTSA and alumni association on top of the amount of fundraisers they did allowed them to book the venue after successful negotiations with the event planning team at the Academy of Sciences. “We were lucky to have a really good team at the academy that were able to accommodate what we needed in terms of pricing.” says Lam.
The negotiations between the committee and the academy allowed room in the budget for prom ticket prices to be lower than they would have been at other schools booking the Academy, bringing them from $130 down to just $65 for first day sales.
The security and elation in accomplishing their goal of getting the Academy of Sciences as a venue didn’t slow their goal of having a perfect prom however. When asked about what else needed to be done to have a successful event, Lam T. said “We need to anticipate what can go wrong so we can ensure everything is done right and we get the most out of the event as possible.”
The announcement that the Academy of Sciences would be the official venue for the 2023 senior prom for a low ticket price considering the venue spread excitement around the senior class. “I’m shocked and excited they were able to book such a large and interesting venue that was a part of so many of our childhoods” says senior Logan T.
