The annual prom took place on April 20 in the Johnson Field House. Juniors and seniors were invited to celebrate with the theme “On Cloud Nine.”

“The prom committee really tried to keep everything light,” Dean of Students for Global Education Tara Inman said. “The only color that was really there other than white was blue and some silver, so I think trying to create sort of a floating feeling was what we tried to do.” 

The planning process started right after Christmas break. 

“There was a great group of junior moms who did so much to help out. They did a lot of the hard work,” Inman said. “In addition to them, there were about 14 students who helped from the beginning to the end planning and preparing.” 

The evening started at around 8 pm with the senior walkout in front of the Huffman. 

“One of my favorite moments was the senior walkout and seeing all the seniors that I got to know over the past two years. I was feeling proud,” junior Anna Nguyen said. 

The tradition behind prom is that the juniors hold the prom to say goodbye to the seniors, whose graduation is just a few weeks later. 

“The whole junior class was invited to join the planning,” Inman said. “In terms of picking the theme; that was really the students. They made most of the decisions on what they wanted to have.” 

Besides the dance floor, there were different photo booths, lounges and a snack buffet. 

“I think the three different types of photo booths were very creative and gave students a lot of different opportunities to capture some of these special moments,” Nguyen said. “The theme was executed beautifully. The carpet looked amazing, it fit the theme. The inside was very well decorated.” 

Since Darlington is a day and boarding school, many international students only stay for one year as they see it as an exchange of culture and an opportunity to gain experience.

“Experiencing prom is great for everyone but especially for international students it’s a highlight because it allows them to experience another aspect of American culture,” Nguyen said. 

Parents played a major role in organizing the event. 

“They did all the work of hiring all the vendors, including making all the meetings, arrangements and payments to them,” Inman said. “They helped set and clean everything up and baked all of the cookies and pretzel sweet treats. They bought a thousand bottles of water and coolers and brought them to the school. They did a lot of the hard work.”