Throughout the years students have been creatively making their graduation caps their own with unique, personalized designs. This trend first started back in the early 1960s when students wanted to convey their own political opinions. The top of the caps are shaped like squares to represent a book. The shape of a book is also there to represent any type of scholarly achievement throughout the time spent in school.  I encourage students to purchase their graduation caps and gowns instead of renting them so they can join in on the fun experience of making them their own. 

I interviewed senior Maddie Caputo to ask her a few questions regarding her graduation cap design. First, we asked her if she believes that it’s important that people design their caps for graduation. 

She responded, “Yes I think it is very important for students to decorate or design their caps because it shows people’s different artistic skills and the symbols that are most important or meaningful to them.” 

After that, we proceeded to ask her what makes her cap design special.

 “The reason my design is meaningful to me is because it relates to my grandmother even though she’s not with me in person, I’ll always know she was here in spirit, especially on the times that I wanted to give up. I knew she was and was cheering me on the entire way.”

 After talking with Maddie Caputo who gave us some amazing feedback regarding why she chose her graduation cap design. While also giving us an idea of what kind of things to look out for coming graduation day. 

After that, we got together with senior Brielle Heffernan and asked her about her graduation cap design.

She responded with “I think I’ll be adding a tribute to my dad who passed away.” 

She continued, “I believe it is important so everyone can express who they are as a person.” 

We were also wondering how long it takes to complete a design on a cap.

Brielle weighed in, “I think the most it will take me to fully complete my cap will be 3-4 days.” 

After meeting with various students we made sure not to leave out our teachers and staff members. We first met with our Human Behaviors and History teacher Mrs. Slater. We started by asking her what her opinion is on students designing their graduation caps.

She explained, “Decorating caps is a great way to personalize graduation and allow a student to recognize the achievement of completing four years of high school.” 

We also asked her whether or not she would have chosen to design her own grad cap when she was in high school.

Slater said, “I think I would! No one decorated caps when I graduated. I think it would have been fun to decorate and it would help serve as a memento of high school if I chose to keep it.”

Mrs Brown had her own connection with the designing of graduation caps: “When my daughter graduated college she decorated her cap with Rocky and the Final Countdown! She was easy to find in the crowd! I enjoy graduations where students decorate their caps, however, guidelines to prohibit any kind of controversy or vulgarity need to be in place.” 

As for how Mrs. Brown designed her graduation cap back in high school, she explained, “If I could go back in time and decorate my own cap, I would have. The present ME would design a rising sun with a butterfly, I don’t Think I would have chosen that when I was in high school or college though.”

As for graduation as a whole, it is not far away and there is plenty of excitement in the air! Mrs. Brown explained how her personal favorite part about graduation at Gateway is the scoreboard reading the graduation year.

After interviewing everyone, it’s safe to say that there will be a good chunk of people who will be decorating their caps for graduation this June. Of course, we will need to follow certain guidelines to make sure that our caps are still school-appropriate. Given the fact that decorating your graduation cap was used as a strike against a school now turned around into a great memory for graduates.