Students attend a Minecraft Prom

Students across the country are finding creative ways to hold events such as prom and graduation virtually.

At Hunter College High in New York City students spent days creating a virtual model of their high school in Minecraft so that they can feel like back at school for the virtual prom. "For just a second, it feels like we're being returned to the normal functioning of school," said Ruby Allison, 17, a senior.

Together with a dozen classmates Allison used Google Earth to get the layout of Hunter College High and then built a 3D version brick-by-brick in Minecraft.

"As I was walking through it [in Minecraft], just walking around the environment, it was this drastic return to normality for me, just walking through the doors," said Allison. "And I think it’s a thing, especially since we’re stuck at home with nothing to do, that gives people something to take their mind off everything that’s going on. There are downsides to technology -- when we were in person I had issues with people being on their phone too much -- but people are taking what they have and making the best of it. I think it’s really valuable for people to be able to look at these online spaces as legitimate social spaces." 

In Omaha, Nebraska, a group of high school students built their own Minecraft prom too.

Simon Podliska, Jack McNally and Isaiah Griffith, three Creighton Prep High School students, literally put together a party. Using Minecraft scenery and a Discord server for communication, they invited students to play mini-games, duel in fighting areas, or hang out in a digital auditorium complete with a huge dance floor and a DJ booth.

They even adhered to a formal dress code. "Recreating the whole prom experience, people that are more into the whole dressing up and going out part of prom can do that if they want," McNally, a sophomore at Creighton Prep, said.

Griffith, also a junior at Creighton Prep, said the hours his fellow students put into building the space, block by block, show how much making memories in high school means to them. 

"It really means that even in the face of this pandemic, we can't be held down. We'll still find other ways to connect socially and we'll still be able to 'have prom' even though we can't have prom," Griffith said.