Decisions, Dates, Decorations: Keatyn Wuest Tackles Homecoming

Keatyn Wuest sits with other Student Council members during the Homecoming spikeball tournament from last year, 2025. Photo creds: Ellen Hege

Carrie Bradbury, Senior Editor and Review Desk Lead

On Monday, August 17 students rushed into Watauga High School with high hopes for the new school year. Typically, the first day of school marks the beginning of schoolwork and clubs. However, some high school students' responsibilities didn't stop at the end of last year, instead they continued through the two months of summer break. 

A prime example of this is Student Body Vice President, Keatyn Wuest, who spent her summer preparing for Homecoming. 

“Having the position of Student Body Vice President, everyone is telling me, ‘Homecoming is all on you’, and ‘Homecoming is your job,’ or ‘are you ready to pick up Homecoming?’” said Wuest. “When I really think about it and the work that I've done in the past years, Homecoming is really a group effort.”

According to tradition, the Student Body Vice President is in charge of all things Homecoming. Due to the atypically early date for Homecoming this school year, Wuest and her team had to work tirelessly over the summer to have their plans finished before the start of the school year. Because of the additional commitments, such as executive meetings with other Student Council members, Wuest was pulled away from participating in usual summer activities.

“We had an executive meeting, and in that executive meeting we discussed the theme,” said Wuest. “I brought all my ideas and we talked about how the week would be laid out.”

The theme is what catches the attention of most high schoolers. Which theme is chosen can make or break the success of each dance. With the pressure to create something new and interesting, Wuest turned to the past for inspiration.

“We always start by looking at previous years, so when I brought up my ideas for the theme, I started by looking at the past year's tickets,” said Wuest. “I think the biggest thing is you don't want to make a theme that's super similar to a Prom or a Homecoming theme that's been done within the past few years.” 

Finding a theme that is new and different from previous years, that will also catch the attention of students, is not an easy task for one person to take on alone. Due to the short amount of time, Wuest was unable to survey the school, instead she relied on her partner and Student Body President Stacy Eggers for support.

“Stacy and I work so closely together now, so it's easy to reach out to him and let him know what I'm working on, and he's happy to meet up at most times of the day,” said Wuest.

While Wuest and Eggers do have the ability to communicate and collaborate with each other on any unexpected issues, one problem remains despite their efforts. With no poll or vote, the students are without a chance to voice their preference this year.

“It is an unfortunate decision because I would like for the school to have more input like they have for years and I would like the council to have more input,” said Wuest.

Planning the dance’s theme is not the only task on Wuest’s plate. Once a compelling theme is chosen, Wuest must begin her search for all of the decorations needed to place around the school for the dance itself. 

“When I think about that, we have to order decorations, we're typically ordering decorations around that time [date of the dance],” said Wuest. “So I'm like, wow, I need to be doing that now, like 5 minutes ago now.”

Homecoming is Wuest’s main responsibility right now, but there are many more projects ahead of her. The position of Student Body Vice President also means Wuest is the chair of the Actions Committee, which is where she plans many of the events happening at Watauga.

“Action is a really great group because we do a lot of the setting up and behind the scenes planning that really pulls everything together,” said Wuest.

The stress of planning and being in charge of multiple monumental events would be intense for one person to carry alone, but Wuest has found a way to make her summer and school year as easy-going as possible. This comes in the form of finding a bigger purpose, a reason for all of the hard work.

“It was really just dedicating myself to something bigger and pushing through and doing the work for myself and people around me,” said Wuest. “I'm especially excited to lead the group in a bigger fashion. With being in a student body position, you're representing the entire school.”