By Madeline Zavala ’24
After 30 years, the long awaited Senior Sunrise returned to Derby High School on Sept. 27. Alexia Keklik was the ambitious student who made this event possible.
The Class of 2024 was given the opportunity to come onto campus early in the morning to watch the sunrise with their fellow peers. While on campus, seniors made posters to represent their class and sat with their friends and reminisced about the last four years of their high school life.
What exactly made this event possible? “I would give credit to some very ambitious seniors in the Class of 2024. In particular, Alexia Keklik was very instrumental in advocating to have a senior sunrise.” assistant principal Ray Coplin emphasizes. Keklik is currently a senior here at Derby High School. She wanted to attend a senior sunrise but realized that the Student Council would not be set until later in the year. Eager for this sunrise, she took matters into her own hands.
“Once I saw that we would take a couple months to have our Student Council fully collected, I decided to just take it into my own hands and host the senior sunrise for us,” Keklik stated. She began her process by talking to Coplin about her idea of bringing back the senior sunrise to DHS, gaining his approval. Keklik continued her process by asking the senior class if the new date selected would work for them, which demonstrated her passion towards this event.
Her commitment pushed others to help her make this dream become reality. Although there was help by her side, some people were not fond of the idea. “Some people really shut down my idea, so you know, you have to be able to take hate. You have to be able to feel that people don’t want to do the things you want to do and still do it though because you can’t let people shut you down,” Keklik expressed. These doubts didn’t bring her down, and she brought the senior sunrise to reality.
The event was a success. Seniors described the event as feeling surreal, thinking about how fast time had flown by. Keklik felt the same, stating, “I think it is going to feel surreal. I think it is going to feel heartwarming because you know a lot of us grew up together you know? We went to elementary school and middle school together and I think it will really make the senior feeling set in that like, this is our last year here.”
Although the excitement was there, there was also a feeling of sadness. “I feel a little sad thinking about it because this year is going to fly by and after this, half of us will never see each other again. We’re all going to be all over the place and we’ve been together for so long and if anything, school is more your family than your family at this point you know? You’re with your friends and your peers all day long so it is a sad feeling you know,” Keklik explained.
What will happen to the senior sunrise? Will it stay at DHS? Stated by Coplin, “It’s something that we have done at Derby High School 30 years ago so it was nice to have it come back. I think that this is something that has returned and will be replicated in the years to come.” Keklik added her input saying, “I would 100% encourage the Class of 2025 to plan a senior sunrise.”
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