On Saturday, March 6 from 6-8:30 p.m., Jesuit High School hosted the Senior Daughter Experience, a virtual event in replacement of the traditional Father-Daughter Dance. The attendees were the Senior girls of the class of 2021 and their respective fathers or father-figures. Despite not being able to celebrate their relationships with their fathers in-person, the event was one to remember.

Due to Covid-19, the traditional father-daughter dance was reformatted to be a virtual event over Zoom called the Senior Daughter Experience. Coordinator of the event, Emily Hagelgans, Vice Principal of Academic and Student Life, structured the event with many fun and engaging activities, emphasizing that throughout the planning process her “main focus was for the Senior girls to have a good time with their dad or father-figure or family member.”

Hagelgans explains the logistics of the event.

“They could choose to order through a catering company that was delivered to their house,” Hagelgans said. “We had a prayer and an opening welcome, [and] I ran a scavenger hunt through Goosechase app. [On the Goosechase app there] was 15 different missions that they could do at home, like ride an ironing board like a surfboard  [or] recreate a Tik Tik dance. We did that for almost an hour and then we had a Musical performance by a local artist, who’s also an alumni of Jesuit high school. Then we had a magician, and then an ending slideshow and closing remarks.” 

Senior Emma Cordova especially enjoyed the scavenger hunt, emphasizing that the Goosechase app helped with the effectiveness of the activity. 

“The Goosechase app is an app that you use for scavenger hunts,” Emma Cordova said. “One was to build the tallest stack of cards, like a castle…or make pirate hats and submit that. It was just like a series of challenges with a range of difficulty that had different point values on them. The object of the scavenger hunt was to rack up as many points as you could. At the end of the whole entire thing, they showed a video that compiled everybody’s challenges so that everyone had a chance in the spotlight.”

Senior Emma Cordova participated in the event with her father, Hugo Cordova. Both of them spoke highly of the event and expressed their gratitude for having time to bond with one another. For Emma and Mr. Cordova, their favorite part of the event was the magic show.

“The magic show was outstanding,” Hugo Cordova said. “The magician was very engaging and I like the old-fashioned card tricks. My favorite part of the night however was the scavenger hunt. It gave me the opportunity to spend some quality time and laughs with my daughter.”

“The magic show was amazing,” Emma Cordova said. “It was so cool. Some of the tricks I still don’t understand. I don’t know how he did any of it. Everybody was super blown away.”

For Senior Hunter Redding and her father, Jason Redding, the most entertaining activity was the scavenger hunt, especially considering that they won 2nd place in the competition. 

“Running around and doing the scavenger hunt competition was really fun,” Hunter Redding said.  

“Yeah, the scavenger hunt was really fun,” Jason Redding said. “But also just having that dad and daughter time.The way they set it up was good because you could just be silly and have fun. They did an excellent job. The way it was laid out and every part was well done and accomplished the next best thing to being in-person.”

When asked about the execution of the event, Ms. Hagelgans “thought it went really well.”

“I got really good feedback from the young ladies and parents,” Hagelgans said. “It went the way I hoped it would. The scavenger hunt part [was my favorite] because I could see all of the submissions coming in, so it was really fun to see that and them being silly and being fun together.”

Despite the cancellation of the Father-Daughter Dance, the Seniors and their fathers were very appreciative of the event and bonding time that it allowed.

“I thought it went really well,” Hunter Redding said. “I think we would have loved having the dance because that was always a really fun experience, but because of this time and during Covid, I thought it was great. It was really fun.”

“Overall, I would give it a 10,” Jason Redding said. “During these times, it was so special for them to do that.” 

“I really liked it,” Emma Cordova said. “Given what they had, they did a really great job still holding an event because they could have easily taken this event out of the calendar. I think they weaved a really good tone of reflection and love and community in every activity and presentation. And their opening and closing was really inspiring when it came to thinking about your relationship with your father because as teenagers I don’t think we really think about it that much. They are kind of like your figure head, so hosting an event where they really got you thinking about that or really appreciate it, was a good idea and they executed it well.”