After two years, the Future Dragon Days program at Maggie Walker finally returned during the week of March 21. Future Dragon Days is an event in which accepted and waitlisted incoming freshmen have the opportunity to be toured around the school building by student volunteers each day of the week. Each day is dedicated to welcoming students from different nearby school systems, with Chesterfield on Monday, Henrico on Tuesday, the smaller counties—Goochland, Hanover, and Hopewell—on Wednesday, and Richmond on Thursday. At the start of each day, students came to Maggie Walker at 8:40am, and they experienced a regular school day by visiting various classes, interacting with students and teachers, and stopping by clubs during lunch. 

The program started daily with a welcome assembly in the auditorium, and then the future Dragons were split into small groups with two student leaders. They stayed in these groups for the whole day as they went for a tour of each floor of the school, stopping in classrooms of varying subjects along the way. During lunch, the groups could participate in fun activities such as going to club meetings, playing sports in the gym, and watching student performances. Some of these specific lunchtime activities throughout the week included a jalepeño eating contest, a Deadbeats a cappella stairwell performance, and a powderpuff football game. The day ended with a Q&A session with the student group leaders in the auditorium. 

Future Dragon Days is very important for students still considering whether or not they will come to Maggie Walker because they are given the opportunity to see what kind of community the school has. One particular student who attended Future Dragon Days said that she was excited seeing all the potential opportunities at Maggie Walker, such as the classes she could take and the clubs she could join. “Even people who weren’t student ambassadors were very amiable and open to conversation,” she added. Although this future dragon decided to attend Maggie Walker even before going to Future Dragon Days, she remarked that visiting the school made her more excited to come to Maggie Walker in the fall. 

English teacher Ms. Kerry Sheppard, one of the main organizers of the week, said that Future Dragon Days makes a “huge difference” in a student’s decision to choose Maggie Walker. Getting to see the building and all Maggie Walker has to offer can “spark an interest” in going to Maggie Walker in students. Organizing Future Dragon Days takes a lot of work, but Sheppard nevertheless stated, “I love participating in something so important to the school.” 

In addition to the hard work of the Maggie Walker staff in making this event happen, many students got involved as either a group leader, or as a volunteer at one of the welcome tables stationed around the school, available to answer questions to the eight-graders. The group leaders led a small group of future dragons around the school for the whole day. One sophomore helper at Future Dragon Days, Brie Lawson, commented that she enjoyed getting to show around the middle school visitors, emphasizing that she wished she had experienced a shadow day before coming to Maggie Walker because it would have “made me more excited about coming to Maggie Walker.”

Future Dragon Days is a keystone event for people attending Maggie Walker that half of the current students missed out on. Now that it’s back, incoming students will hopefully feel less nervous about coming to Maggie Walker after getting some interaction with the school and its community. All in all, the return of Future Dragon Days is one step closer to a return to normalcy for rising freshmen affected by the pandemic.