CCP Students and SGA Host the First Winter Formal

Despite constant dismissing, reluctance and zero support from most administration, the SGA and students successfully planned and organized the Winter Formal of 2024. The first ever winter formal at Community College of Philadelphia. This was important as Francis Scales and Jaritsa Hernandez-Orsini wanted to create something for students to come together and have fun! The SGA team including Shyann Davis, Julieanne Meas, Jaritsa Hernandez-Orsini, and Maria Baez only had a month to plan, with busy school schedules, finals week and the end of semester creeping by, the women had to act quick on planning, decorating, and budgeting how much would be needed to get this party started. Maria Baez, treasurer of SGA, worked to budget the event, Jules calculated the decorations list, and Jaritsa finalized it with contributions from Shayann Davis, senator at large at Main Campus. Everyone worked together despite the administration’s attitude being “good luck.” They let the team of students take charge of the event. With such little time, responsibilities of their educational endeavors, work, and personal life, SGA and the students made it happen, although with little support from their faculty advisor Jeffrey Markovitz.

“We always must keep pushing for help even when we need more, they would try to ignore us, but we continued to apply pressure,” said Jaritsa Hernandez-Orsini.

The turnout was so good, they ran out food facing some drawbacks at the event, even needing more tables. Students had to be mindful of how many meatballs they put on their plate; perhaps if administration and SGA advisor Jeffrey Markovitz were more proactive, this would not have been a problem. Even so, Julieanne Meas, Ivy Yim, and Shayanne Davis were instrumental in decorating the entire event, turning the Sandra Klein Cube into a festive winter wonderland with fake snow and candle lanterns on each table with white flowers. Ivy Yim went outside and collected rocks to add to the flower arrangements. Not only did this teamwork go above expectations, but they were also resourceful and worked as a team, even though it was 30 degrees outside, there was harsh rain; they trudged their way in their winter formal dresses and of course, finals anxiety…

Nothing stops CCP students when they put their mind to something. I have learned students do the best they can to come together, plan and manage an event that students need and want. There is nothing stopping students from making a place for themselves on our campus. It was wonderful to see students come together, dance and have an enjoyable time. Francis Scales-Frails hosted the entire event with a mic in his hands. Students were dancing the cupid shuffle, with the constant Spotify playlist queue lists changing where students could add their favorite songs to dance on the dance floor. It got to the point where students were missing a couple of their favorite hits from so many songs! It was epic. Even if the food ran out, the laughter and fun went on till it struck 9pm and Jenevia Weaver and students cleaned swiftly and ended the night with a memory of a great time and of course, beautiful fashionable students, ready to strut the dance floor and feel good that they made it through this semester. It is good for students to have events to celebrate their accomplishments and all our community at our college campus. With more proactivity from administration, SGA and students will have an easier time planning these momentous events for the great students that attend our college. 

When I asked Frank Scales what he thought of it all, he told me, “It was great to see the team come together and get something done! Considering that was the first time the Student Government Association has done something so involved it makes me more optimistic about what is possible. I was disappointed that our Faculty Advisor Jeffrey Markovitz refused to order the amount of food we knew we needed or set up the number of tables we requested to be set up. He underestimated what was possible, and as usual did not show up at the event.”