This year, the Space and Engineering Academy (SEA) took a different approach for their Homecoming float. Every day after school, the SEA students gathered around to bring magic to this year’s Homecoming in SEA English teacher Ms. Marna Bynum’s room, H12. The group decided to take Harry Potter as their theme to add a magical touch to Homecoming. The Academy students were able to show their passion towards Engineering with a float which required a lot of construction.

“Reading Harry Potter is a very important milestone in a geek’s life, and I think this also leads to those not in SEA,” said junior Hadeel Abdul-Rehman. Their float showcased a scene of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Quidditch Field and the Hogwarts Express. These are very important features in the Harry Potter series.

Though their float was very well built, there were several obstacles which the group faced. “Organizing all the people in one room and actually building a float at the same time was tough,” said SEA Vice President junior Jaekob Borges. Constructing a float itself is the hardest job overall. “As someone who has been working on a lot of the round features of our float, it’s definitely been a challenge getting cardboard to fit that shape because it is not a very malleable material,” said Abdul-Rehman.

The students learned a lot and definitely bonded through nails and hammers. “It was really fun,” said junior Amrutha Kalle. “We all got it together and everything.” Based on their outcome and their smiles in the parade, we can see that this was true. “This group is really organized and even down to the doing a scale drawing of the whole concept before they started,” commented Bynum. “So, I never had a group do that before, and they’re really progressing and they have set due dates and things along the way,” she continued.

As the students of the Space and Engineering Academy introduced magic to West High using their Engineering skills, we will be looking forward for them to make this year a magical school year.