Niles High School seniors celebrate Decision Day 2023

NILES, Mich. (WNDU) - In Michigan, high school seniors are encouraged to celebrate their futures through a statewide Decision Day initiative.

“And it’s you know, kind of a play on the National Decision Day all across the country,” said Erika Ervin, a college advisor at Niles High School.

Niles High School has their Decision Day a little later in the month than most schools, in order to give students as much time as possible to figure out their plans.

“For our decision day, we do it a little bit later to give students a little bit more time to figure out their decisions, this is a big decision on what they’re going to do after high school,” Ervin said.

At a Decision Day celebration presentation, held Friday morning in the cafeteria, students were able to stand up for recognition, and applaud one another for their after high-school plans.

“Where we recognize decisions by institution, military branch, trade, it’s not just college, it’s whatever their decision is, and even if they’re undecided,” Ervin said.

The day is an opportunity for seniors to play games, enter raffle contests, eat treats, and even read letters of encouragement they wrote to themselves back in the eighth grade, while celebrating their plans for the next chapter.

“It’s so exciting seeing all of my classmates go to wherever they’re going, and the diversity within them, like one of my best friends is going to the air force, another one of my best friends is going to the University of Michigan. So, it just shows that there is a place for everybody, truly, and no matter what your decision is, we love supporting our classmates in that decision, that’s why we make sure to recognize undecided, and the fact that it’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do right after high school,” said Niles High School senior, Payton Yarbrough.

Students told 16 news Now that it means a lot to them to go to a school that cares about their futures and highlighting their journey.

“So, they just really want to kind of help us through the whole process and they’ve made it seem a lot less scary,” Yarbrough said.

According to the school calendar, the senior’s last day of school this year is May 19th.

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