What do you wear to your senior prom when it is held over Zoom?

"I guess I’ll just find a dress that I have already at home and wear that and just you know maybe pajama pants on the bottom since nothing will be seen below my waist," Morgan McCourt said.

Morgan is among the students at the Frank Sinatra School for the Arts who will attend a virtual prom this week, part of seven days of events celebrating Sinatra's graduating seniors.

What You Need To Know:

  • Students at Frank Sinatra School for the Arts will celebrate a virtual ‘Senior Weeks.’
  • That includes prom, which will be held over Zoom.
  • There will also be a car parade this Saturday where students can see one another from a distance.

"I have my t-shirt with the little tuxedo tie on it. We've hired a DJ, we’ll be on Zoom, students can dance and watch each other dancing. I’m not a great dancer but I’ll do the best that I can,” Principal Gideon Frankel said.

It's just one way Frankel hopes to keep the mood celebratory despite the pandemic that has kept students and staff separated for months.

“They have their whole future ahead and no matter what the challenges are, this is their last week of high school, so it’s important that we have fun and that we celebrate them in style,” said Frankel.

That includes piecing together virtual versions of their senior performances. A senior dance routine features students showing off choreography on dead-end streets and rooftops and in tiny bedrooms.

"There was not a lot of space in my apartment to do a whole ballet class,” Morgan said.

The school's production manager, Andre Vazquez, stitched together such videos for students in each of the school's majors, and they'll be shown during the school's virtual commencement Friday.

"It’s a challenge but it’s fun and it’s also really cool to see students performing or teachers giving speeches in their home. There’s something really intimate about it that I've never experienced on stage,” he said.

Not everything will be online. On Saturday, students will gather for what's being called a car parade.

"Seeing my teachers and the administration and my friends in person makes it more exciting because it feels closer to an actual celebration,” Morgan said.

They'll gather in separate cars with their families along for the ride, near their Queens school for one final goodbye.

 

"There's a big banner hanging in the window with all their pictures and they'll get to see the school one last time. We’ll wave to them as they drive by, blow them kisses, with our masks on and our gloves on,” Frankel said.

A final farewell, fit for a pandemic.