Over the last few years, there has been a tradition across high schools where there would be an Instagram page dedicated to the seniors’ college decisions. The pages would highlight the name of the student, their college decision, as well as their major.
The purpose of these pages is to celebrate the decisions of the students, but also to offer insight to younger students. Since sophomores and juniors are in the mindset of looking at colleges, the decisions page helps them get a glimpse of potential colleges and majors.
Junior Angelina Girardin says, “I have a lot of friends who are seniors and it’s very cool to see where they go to college. The page helps me get a glance at what my future holds.”
This tradition has existed at DePaul Prep for a few years now, and each year, a new senior takes it upon themselves to run the account. This year, senior Lakyra Williford runs the DePaul Prep decisions Instagram page. She will be attending Hampton University in the fall and will be majoring in broadcast journalism.
At first, it was a secret of who ran the account, but as the year was coming to an end, people started to find out. Williford didn’t mind because the students were really enjoying the account. “I run the instagram DCP decisions page and I feel like anyone can do it,” says Williford. “Not only am I really good at editing, in my opinion, but I feel like creativity is something I want to express and show.”
The DePaul Prep decisions page has received a lot of positive reviews, including one from the director of student activities and student life, Mr. Chris Petersen. Petersen, who also runs the DePaul Prep Student Life Instagram page, says that the DePaul Prep decisions page is “a great celebration of students of where they decide to go.”
The Instagram account has also received positive feedback from DePaul Prep students. Michael Scarpelli is a DePaul Prep senior who will be attending Roosevelt University for early childhood education. He agrees with Petersen and says that it’s cool to learn about where “my other classmates are going and what they are going to pursue. I think it’s another layer we get to learn about them,” says Scarpelli.
Similar to Scarpelli and Petersen, senior Pablo Audette, who is attending Vanderbilt University for English, agrees that it’s interesting to see where everyone is going.
“You are seeing a lot of people you know very well, some people you know loosely, and some you didn’t even know existed,” says. Audette. “It’s cool to see everyone moving on together, but doing something different and unique.”
Since the account is not officially affiliated with DePaul Prep, the school can’t give much guidance towards the account. This means that the account is something that students wanted to do and that is what Petersen likes about it. “The best traditions are started by students because students want to follow them,” says Petersen.
Since this has been a tradition for years, there have been many accounts made by former DePaul Prep seniors. “I think it’s cool to look back on each class and see where each class decided to go,” says Audette.
The process of posting itself is very simple and Williford manages it very well. She uses the templates on Canva to make the posts. “I chose the circle template because I feel like it best shows the person and the school,” says Williford. “I can edit it however I want. I can make the colors match with the school or the background,” she adds.
To those who want to run the Instagram Decisions account for their grade in the future, Williford has some tips in making the account enjoyable to others. She recommends starting the account early or when the Common App opens because everyone will want to start it at the same time. Make sure to take the account seriously because the page is used to celebrate the student and may benefit others.
The best advice that Williford can give is to “make sure to stand up in what you believe in, use your voice, and express your creativity because people will try and take that away from you and you shouldn’t let anyone do that.” When it comes to deciding on a college or university, Audette says to “go where your heart is. You can run all the stats, but ultimately it comes down to the feeling you get about the right school for you.”
