By Anna Mefford
Abby Thompson, senior SGA president, is already thinking about graduation, specifically what seniors will be wearing on their heads. Her goal is to “Implement caps and gowns for the new century,” she said.
For three years, she’s been secretary and treasurer, and she “felt like [she] needed to take a bigger role.” The spot also opened up when Jackson Liu, who was president for the past three years, decided not to run.
“I wanted to run for president because, honestly, if I weren’t president, I would probably still be running it as president anyway, just because I’ve always put in maximum effort,” Abby stated.
Last year, Abby’s biggest challenge as treasurer was prom, which she did not take lightly. She painted a mural by herself at home for nine hours, and skipped school multiple times to see the venue.
Even when she had to test for something, she’d move things so that she could get things done. “So, it only made sense for me to take on a bigger role,” she said.
Among Abby’s responsibilities is deciding the class theme and creating the shirts. “I was pretty nervous when coming up with the theme as I did not want to let anyone down,” she said.
The theme is typically connected with the class’s graduation year or some large event happening that year. For example, last year focused on the quarter for 2025.
After many half-marathon walks in the summer with friends like senior Maxine Smith, Abby knew exactly what this class’s theme would be: marathon. “With a marathon, we knew we could use the final lap and the final stretch metaphor, being your last year in high school,” she said.
Abby went through multiple drafts of the shirt on her Apple pen and iPad, and let’s just say that the topic of senior shirts brought up some unresolved trauma.
“Oh my, this was awful,” Abby said. “I was emailing Ms. Hooker the whole entire summer. I had met with her on a Google Meet, and we literally had over probably 60 chats back and forth.”
She also had to communicate with the printer people, who began complaining that the file wasn’t working. Apparently, the JPEG wasn’t high enough resolution. Therefore, they had to recreate it themselves. To no one’s surprise, Abby stopped that right there, telling them, “Hey, y’all aren’t doing this.”
However, after almost setting a world record in reply emails, the shirts evolved into a beautiful final design. “Ms. Hooker and I worked really hard on the shirts, and even though they came in later, I think it still worked out,” she said.
The seniors had nothing but good things to say about these shirts and expressed much gratitude for Abby. “Abby did awesome with the shirts,” Ridley Sands said, “and I am so excited to be rocking it all year long.”
As we ended our chat in room 210, Abby explained that she has high hopes for this year and already thinks we’re off to a great start!
As for the progress on those caps and gowns? “I really think we’ll be able to do it this year because I really want to, and I know that I’ll fight for it,” she said.
