Jodie Wiens
Seniors Anna Vittitoe and Dawson Jenkins slow dance after being crowned the West Shore Prom King and Queen of 2024. “It was a really fun moment,” Vittitoe said. “We weren’t expecting people to vote for us, so when they called our names we were really surprised.”
The scheduled date for West Shore’s prom, April 4, conflicts with two other school-related events: the HOSA Future Health Professionals state conference and the Florida Scholastic Press Association’s spring convention. Several students typically attend both of these events, as they are members of both the school HOSA chapter and various branches of journalism and the yearbook.
“I feel disappointed, I’m going to skip FSPA so I can attend prom. It’s sad but working around it would be difficult,” junior Naomi Sathyendra, a member of the yearbook staff, said. “I don’t think it’s worth only staying at the hotel for a day and driving all the way back from Orlando.”
The HOSA state conference is a competition for students who qualified at the regional level HOSA competition. It involves several different events that students can participate in, such as tests, HOSA bowl and a live spelldown.
“It’s just unfortunate that everything falls on the same day,” senior Suhina Mitra, the HOSA student president said. “I know a lot of people are going to HOSA states and then leaving early to go to prom. We even have two girls who qualified for states who aren’t able to go because they chose FSPA.”
The HOSA state conference begins April 3 and ends April 6; the FSPA convention begins April 3 and ends April 5, posing complications for students like junior Nadine Swartz, a member of both HOSA and the yearbook staff.
“I don’t think I should have to choose between my social life and academic life,” Swartz said. “[I’ve] decided to go to [FSPA] instead of HOSA because I had a better experience at FSPA last year. I was with more of my friends and had the chance to meet a lot of new people, which made it more enjoyable [for me].”
Swartz is one of two students who qualified for the HOSA state conference but chose to attend the FSPA convention and prom because their HOSA events are scheduled on the same day as the dance.
“Since my HOSA event falls on the same day as prom, I didn’t want to miss out on getting ready with my friends and going to prom,” Swartz said. “Right now, I am planning on trying to make it to both prom and FSPA, but that means I am going to have to miss out on a lot of FSPA activities that I was looking forward to.”