Junior Crowning Tradition Lives On

Graduating seniors “crowning” juniors is a tradition at NP3 High.

By Harshan Heer
Staff Writer | The Pacific Times

It’s the time of year when seniors pass on their crowns as the rulers of the school to juniors. 

Junior crowning is a student-led ceremony for seniors to create and design crowns for juniors as a way for seniors to say:

“We were the kings of the campus and we are now passing that crown on to juniors,” said Annie Jones, a teacher at NP3 since the start of the junior crowning tradition.

Junior crowning has always been a student-driven event, as a student came up with the idea years ago and used the Burger King crowns on their own. Then, advisors offered help to coordinate the crowning.

“It adds excitement for juniors and seniors and adds individuality. It’s a little different each year because some advisors get super involved, and other times it’s more independent,” said Jones.

Ever since junior crowning began, it has never missed a year. It started more intimate, but as class sizes grew each year, so did the tradition. 

Seniors get to choose who they want to crown from the junior advisory assigned to their senior advisory.

Juniors submit a Google form with information that asks what their hobbies are, what TV shows and films they like, and any additional information they would like to share with their senior partner for the design of their crown. 

“This year, the kids decided they wanted to match classes. Some years they would pick from the whole list, but it was tricky because then some people didn’t get a crown,” said Jones.”This happened in the past, where there was once a team of kids making a ton of crowns so no one gets left behind. It’s a lot of kids to coordinate.” 

Teresa Villaneva said that “Advisories get paired up based on class sizes. Bigger senior advisories get paired with bigger junior advisories, but some seniors end up having to crown two people instead of the usual one.”

This year, the advisors crowning and being crowned include Osborn’s advisory crowning Parker’s advisory, Villaneva’s advisory crowning Vallesfino’s advisory, Guzman’s advisory crowning Huang’s advisory, Peacock’s advisory crowning Harris’s advisory, Daragahi’s advisory crowning England’s advisory, Jones’s advisory crowning Higgins/Meditz advisory and Knestrick’s advisory crowning Riehl’s advisory.

Alexis Go Policarpio, a current junior, said that she “is excited about getting crowned.”

“I am being crowned by Gia Bedi from Villaneva’s advisory, and it is exciting to be crowned by my friend,” she said.”It’s also crazy how much time has passed since the first time we witnessed crowning as freshmen, so to think that we’re being crowned now is sentimental because times are moving so fast.” 

Serenity Vang, a current senior, said, “I’m excited to make the crowns. But I have a lot of things to do, and this is just another priority on top of it. It’s fun, but it’s kinda in the way.”

Diego Rodriguez, a current sophomore, added that he “thinks that it will be a fun experience. I have some junior friends, so it will be exciting to have them crown me. I heard that the crowns are custom-made. I like that because it’s more personalized and meaningful.”