8th Grade Preview Night: What was it?

“Every year students in Poudre school districts get to shop around and choose the school of which they will be attending the following school year,” said Mrs. Wilson, the activities director for Poudre.

This is in reference to Eighth grade preview night, which for the unfamiliar was on the second of December this year and entails eighth grade students coming from all over the district to come see what this school is all about, and whether or not they wish to spend the next four years of their life as a student here.

The event was set up by Mrs. Wilson as it always has been since its conception in 2016 according to Mrs. Wilson “We got the idea from a conference in Reno Nevada. We used these great strategies that other schools were implementing and brought them here to Poudre high school” making this event officially 9 years old as of 2025. And it has grown to be quite the event with other schools copying the preview night according to Mrs. Wilson “After 2- or 3-years word got around and the other schools in town began to do the same” and it is now a staple of all schools in PSD k-12.

As far as the structure of the night it starts with a presentation in the auditorium, they then release the eighth grader students out into the rest of the school where they can go meet with representatives from organizations in the school that includes clubs, pathways and programs in the school. Just to name a few that I saw during the night there was a table representing IB, FFA, our world language department, the English department, a table for Mock trial, and many others that I don't have the time to name here but Mrs. Wilson estimated "anywhere between 80 and 100” of just programs here at Poudre. And all of these had members representing them to our prospective eighth grader students so if you are interested in representing a club or organization, you're a member of be sure to speak to its leaders for next year’s with grade preview night.

At eighth grade preview night there are many different people you can talk to but ambassadors as well as student council members give tours to families to introduce them to a rough map of the interior of Poudre High School as well as to answer any questions that they may have about  the experience to be had as well as the opportunity available to eighth grade students here at Poudre high school. Which is only one of 54 total schools here in PSD and one of 10 schools in the district that have grades 9-12 (multiple offer more grades than 9-12 with 2 offering K-12 and three offering 8-12) according to the district's official website. Seeing that it seems that this tradition shows Poudre's need to appear as appealing as possible to future students selecting between nine other schools.

Poudre preview night is a tradition stretching back to 2016 and it doesn't look like it will be going anywhere soon with Mrs. Wilson at the helm. Hopefully this tradition and opportunity for both eighth grade and high school students alike is alive and well into the future.

Work Cited

Poudre School District. “PSD High Schools.” psdschools.org, https://www.psdschools.org/choosepsd/psd-school-profiles/psd-high-schools. Accessed 8 December 2025.