Every Xavier girl looks forward to her senior year and especially to the Xavier Scholarship Fashion Show. Many girls have been attending the fashion show for years, looking up to the seniors as they tearfully present their families with a rose at the end of the show. For the class of 2016, their moment finally arrived on March 12.

The Xavier Scholarship Fashion Show theme this year was “Tradition, Past and Present,” which is very fitting since the fashion show is one of Xavier’s most beloved traditions. The fashion show featured both Xavier and Brophy seniors in dances. In honor of the tradition theme, each dance went through the decades starting in the 1940s and working toward our modern era.

It was sponsored by Dillard’s, which provided the wardrobe for the dances. The event was held at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge. All of the proceeds from the event fund the Xavier scholarship program that gives 40 percent of Xavier’s students the chance to have an unrivaled education that they could not otherwise afford.

Students go through months of rehearsals with their assigned dance groups in preparation for the big day. Senior Jessica Zanotti said, “My favorite part of the show was learning dances beside my classmates.”

Seniors learn their dances over the course of a few months before the show and are fitted for costumes that go with their specific routine. Senior Teresa Roessler said, “I most enjoyed expressing my spunky characteristics and style through dances alongside some of my life-long friends.”

The fashion show is yet another invaluable bonding experience that students get to participate in at Xavier. Senior Mackenzie Cantor said, “My favorite experience was hanging out with people I didn’t know well and bonding with them because we all had to cooperate together as a group and communicate.”

The feeling of community and friendship is evident to every senior and audience member as fellow classmates not in the fashion show are called on stage to join their peers at the end of the event. It is hard to find a dry eye in the house as the seniors leave the stage in mass group hugs and tearful smiles. The fashion show is a truly special tradition here at Xavier that brings every senior class closer together for one final time before they graduate.