May 1st is National College Decision Day | Meet the Senior Behind @nfadecisions24
May 1st is National College Decision Day, but NFA senior Megan Torres has been thinking about the decisions of her classmates all year. Megan is the (previously anonymous) manager of the NFA Decisions Instagram page for the Class of 2024. Megan found herself intrigued by the decision pages of now alumni and developed a concept for her graduating class. She collaborated with a member of the Student Council, pitching her idea, in hopes of managing the official page. She planned on utilizing baby pictures of our graduating seniors coupled with their college decision and declared major.
"I decided to change it up a bit with the baby picture because I know that we'll be seeing the senior pictures everywhere," shared Megan. She also found that some classmates didn't have their senior pictures yet or didn't opt for the digital file, whereas the likelihood of having a baby picture was pretty high.
Megan developed a thorough system to make submissions easy and that organized the information to create her showcase for the decisions. Using a Google form to collect the information, Megan used Canva to create a template decision, visited the college's web page for the logo file, and found their hex color to match their branding perfectly.
At first, she was very nervous, which is part of the reason for the anonymity. She wasn't sure if people would like her idea to use baby pictures and there was a long gap between receiving her first submission in January and the next flurry in March. Understandably, college decisions can be difficult, but she found that many of her classmates didn't want to be the first to share and to be featured. Once peer pressure and family encouragement kicked in, the submissions started to roll in. Since her first post in January, Megan has received and posted more than 110 decisions and gained more than 400 followers. Throughout the process, she has subtly encouraged her friends to submit and found it a little entertaining when people try to guess who the page is run by.
This initiative just adds to Megan's involvement in her school community. Megan is part of the sideline and competitive cheer teams, a Varsity Captain for both this fall and winter season. She sings with the Madrigals and has been inducted into the National Honor Society and Music Honor Society. She is also on the Varsity Lacrosse team and should earn her Cosmetology license by the time she graduates. Prior to attending Newburgh Free Academy, Megan attended Meadow Hill School.
As for Megan, she's heading to the University of Colorado at Boulder in the fall and plans to study Secondary Education on a History track. Megan's sister Ashley was the Salutatorian for NFA's class of 2013 and went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, later becoming a Fighter Pilot. Megan has visited her at least once a year ever since, drawing her to Colorado for her own education. She is considering doing a club sport or intramurals in college and definitely won't give up music.
You can find the decisions of our NFA seniors on Megan's Instagram page. Be sure to check out her work and celebrate where our scholars will be heading to college in the fall!
Special thanks to Sofia Mucci, Ms. O'Neill, Ms. Rooney, Ms. Carbone, Mr. Kavanagh, Ms. Ponsu, Ms. Valentino, and Mr. Doddo.
ATTENTION: Are your scholars or colleagues doing something great? Please contact the district Communications Team at communications@necsd.net. We’d love to visit your class or event and/or post your pictures and recap to highlight the amazing accomplishments throughout our district!
