Juniors Alen Abhilash, Robinson Chen, Joshua Ng and senior Anna Brown attend OFAD on April 22, 2025, to gain insight about the life of a city official. SCA members from every high school in Virginia Beach attended the event. Photo used with permission from Robinson Chen.

Virginia Beach Citywide SCA invited 195 students and 87 community officials across the school district to the 40th annual Official for a Day (OFAD) event.  

The event puts different city and school officials in the spotlight, which provides students an opportunity to network and ask questions about their day-to-day lives. This year the event highlighted the theme, “Shaping our Story.”

“We picked this theme because we liked the versatility of the theme through decorations and the impact that the theme can have on our community as a whole,” senior and Citywide SCA communications officer Grace Melendez said.

Over 40 departments across the city held information sessions at roundtables for the event at the Virginia Beach Convention Center on April 22, 2025, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. These included the Commonwealth Attorney, Emergency Services, Human Resources, Human Services the School Board and more. 

“I participated in the Planning and Community Development, School Division Services, and School Leadership roundtables,” junior and SCA member Joshua Ng said. “I learned the importance of every department, no matter how big or small their job was.”

OFAD’s main program consisted of three information sessions, two of which were tailored to students’ career preferences and one randomly selected session. Each session lasted 20 minutes and included a 10-minute break between the second and third session. 

“It was an amazing opportunity for young student leaders to learn about the people who are in charge of running the city,” junior and SCA member Robinson Chen said.

All members of the Ocean Lakes SCA Executive Board and General Assembly were invited to apply to attend OFAD through a Google Form application. Participants were selected on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“If anyone is interested in attending OFAD in the future, I highly recommend getting involved with SCA,” Robinson said.