But for this year’s Junior Honor Guard, the selection process needed a few alterations. This year, a large amount of juniors submitted their applications with the hopes of being a part of graduation. Rather than selecting forty juniors that qualify to be a part of Honor Guard, the application process was cut into two parts. First, the applications were reviewed and cut down to fifty. The second step is to take those fifty remaining juniors and randomly select forty juniors to be a part of the Junior Honor Guard.

While seniors are the ones in the spotlight, juniors also get to enjoy some of the fun. Every year a total of forty juniors are able to participate at graduation by wearing formal attire and standing around on the sidelines during the ceremony. Generally, the application process is simple with the requirement of a 2.0 grade point average and turning the application in before the deadline.

When junior Krista Velasco was asked why a multitude of juniors desired to be a part of Junior Honor Guard this year, she responded:

“Because you can go to graduation for free and be a part of something.”

Once the forty juniors are selected, they are given an overview of what they can and cannot wear for the event.  Boys are expected to dress in formal attire such as pants, shirt and a tie; they cannot wear jeans or any casual garments. Girls are expected to dress in long, pastel colored dresses; they are prohibited to wear dresses that are short, strapless, too revealing, and brightly colored.

“Everyone wants to dress up, look nice and just be at graduation,” Xochitl Chaul, 11 said.

In the end, the juniors want to be able to help in any way possible to make graduation memorable for their fellow seniors.

“I wanted to dress up and watch my beloved seniors graduate,” Lily Kim 11, said. “I just wanted to be a part of something and bid the seniors farewell since I won’t see them afterwards.”

Another reason as to why Honor Guard is so popular among juniors is because it is the last school event that they can be a part of before summer vacation. It is also a way to kick off their senior year.