Senior Paige Derickson never thought she would get to meet Drake Bell, a leading actor on a Nickelodeon hit show, as a student at Akins High School, but that’s exactly what happened.

Derickson was not alone. The celebrity encounter was part of a High School Nation tour stop at Akins on Sept. 22. featuring concert performances by major label recording artists, art making activities and prize giveaways for students.

High School Nation began as a way to help Jimmy Cantillon’s younger brother’s band to perform in front of an audience. Now 10 years later, High School Nation considers itself a miniature Warped Tour that focuses exclusively on high school audiences.

Cantillon said one of his goals with High School Nation is to promote support of fine arts curriculum in high schools across the country.

“I think when you have a well rounded education that includes the arts it keeps students excited, it keep them on campus,” Cantillon said. “When you’re creative and have an outlet, your self esteem is much higher and I think that’s really important for a teen- ager. I think it’s a total crime that we’ve been cutting art departments.”
Supporting the arts is one of the reasons why Melissa Royer, Arts and Humanities Academy coordinator, and Regina McGough, New Tech Academy co- ordinator, worked to bring High School Nation to Akins.

When a school runs out of funding, usually the first thing to go is the arts, McGough said.

“It’s nice to have an organization that their sole purpose is to is to remind us that arts are important.”

Beyond the concert, students were able to participate in different events such as T-shirt printing and hair dying. Others received prizes such as iTunes gift cards, sang on stage.

Royer was the driving force behind bringing High School Nation to the school. She showed up four hours before school started and stayed late, making sure everything would go as smoothly as possible.

The AHA Academy received monetary donations from Guitar Center and Michael’s to purchase instruments and supplies. Sponsors of the tour also donated guitars and wireless microphones to the school.