When Principal Buster Clark found out that West Shore was among the few schools in Brevard County that did not organize a Gradventure event for its graduating middle school students, he questioned the reasoning for a decision that seemed otherwise unfair to him.
“If there had been a great reason as to why not, I probably wouldn’t have pursued it that much,” Clark said. “I didn’t really get any good answers as to why not. I’ve felt really drawn to all the purposeful things that we can do here to make [students’] experience here the best that we can, because it’s so hard and there’s so many high expectations. There’s so much that we’re asking of [them] constantly, every day. How can we take every opportunity that we can to celebrate [students], to let [them] be kids?”
In Brevard, 14 of the total 16 other middle schools in the county participated in the Gradventure program at Universal Studios in Orlando. The event, similar to the Grad Bash event for seniors, typically consists of students attending both the Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure theme parks and being free to go on attractions as they please. Planned to occur on May 9, the event will be organized by middle school science teacher Amy McCormick.
“Mr. Clark came to me and said he was looking for somebody with an eighth grade homeroom to kind of take charge, and I [agreed] because I think it’s great,” McCormick said. “My guess is everybody’s going to think it’s so cool. Now, it kind of recognizes them and gives them a little bit of what they would have had a different middle school.”
Unlike Grad Bash, Gradventure is planned to end at midnight rather than 2:00 a.m., with more chaperone supervision involved in contrast to the independence given to seniors. Gradventure students also have the option to access the parks early at 4:00 p.m. rather than the usual time of 7:00, which is an option not provided during Grad Bash. Clark said that safety is planned to be a priority for students while on the trip.
“There’s a little bit more of an expectation with the eighth graders that there’ll probably be a chaperone and a group of ten,” Clark said. “All of that group of ten and the chaperone will all have [each others’] contact information and probably have some planned reconvening from time to time during the night. You don’t have to stay with the chaperone and walk around with them the whole time, but something like ‘Hey, we’re going to check in at Jurassic Park at 9:30, everyone needs to be here checking in. How’s everything going everybody? Good, okay go again, we’re going to check back in at 11:00 and get food,’ … It’s hard to enforce, but my expectation is you always have a buddy [and] everyone is in pairs of two at a minimum.”
Clark said that the majority of the planning for the event has not been finalized yet, but ticket sales will likely begin in early 2025 once students return from winter break. Gradventure will have a stricter dress code than Grad Bash, requiring students to all wear matching shirts to be easily identifiable throughout the park.
“I’m really glad that we happened to start going the year that I’m in this grade,” eighth grader Gwendolyn Pyke said. “I have friends who went to other elementary schools, I’m excited that I might get to see them again at Universal. I’m definitely looking forward to the Harry Potter area in the park. I’ve been to Universal once before and that was the most breathtaking thing, there’s just so many details in the rides and environment. It would definitely also be nice to know stuff in advance [for Grad Bash] and if Gradventure can give kind of an idea of what these graduating events are like, it would be great.”
Although excited, some eighth grade students like Conifer Nevins said they will likely not attend the event due to the often high cost of tickets to events like Gradventure. Clark said that if families cannot afford the full price at once, there will be opportunities to pay for tickets in three installments.
“I’m already most likely going to Disney with West Shore Orchestra, [so Gradventure] is too expensive,” Nevins said. “I feel like it could be a good idea, but also, this is a junior-senior high and I feel like [Grad Bash] is something special to the seniors. At other schools, I could understand it more.”
Despite their excitement, Clark and McCormick expressed concern about how the current class of ninth grade students may feel about the news.
“I feel like the eighth graders do deserve something,” freshman Lauralai Gant said. “Though I’m upset that my grade didn’t get to do it, I feel like it’s a good thing for other grades to be able to because it does seem like it’s a lot of fun. I’ve seen people at other schools be able to do it. I hope that it’s a long-lasting thing because middle school is hard, especially at West Shore, and especially since a lot of people don’t come back for high school. It’s a good way to let kids have some fun, or if they come back, it maybe entices them to stay.”
Clark said that he hopes to plan more events for both ninth grade students and the student body as a whole.
“I’m finding that balance of making sure that we’re taking every chance we can for you guys to enjoy this time,” Clark said. “Build memories, build friendships, relationships and do all those types of things. I think that’s the big-picture reason. You guys are going to see as we go through, there’ll be more. We’re going try to do a spring festival where we’re all here and we’re just having a big party, games and all this stuff to try to do more of that being together in a non-stressful, high-expectation environment. Just be here and be together.”
McCormick said she believes the event will be a success with both her homeroom and the eighth grade class in general, and is hopeful that it will become a long-lasting tradition that will continue in future years.
“We used to have so many events back in the day,” McCormick said. “I remember, when my kid came in, I was like ‘oh, you met so-and-so at the dunking booth?’ and that’s when I realized we haven’t had a dunking booth in forever. We used to have cake walks and all kinds of things, but now that [the new administration] is here, they’re starting to make it fun again. … We used to have Festivus in the holidays, [and] movie nights all the time too where we would sit out in the commons area and eat popcorn and watch movies and we were a real family. You know how we always do that family talk? Back in the day, we were a real family, then I kind of felt like maybe not so much for a while, but now I’m starting to feel that way again.”