AAPS: Pioneer senior runs a popular Instagram site to keep classmates in-the-know

By Jo Mathis/AAPS District News

There are all sorts of ways to find out what’s going on at Pioneer High School, from texts to email to websites and social media.

And now for the past few months, there’s been an exciting new option. Pioneer High School senior Gabby Pacifico runs a carefully curated Instagram account for all things Pioneer.

Gabby came up with the idea for “PiHi Info” last summer when she realized how often kids log on to Instagram as opposed to checking their email.

So she logged onto Canva and spent about 40 hours creating designs for a one-stop, information-packed site for her classmates.

“I’m really happy to hear that people are finding it really helpful,” she said. “It really makes my day whenever someone says, `Hey, your account is really helpful. This is where I get all of my Pioneer information.’”

Gabby says sometimes one of her 788 followers will ask a question about something Pioneer-related, so she’ll reach out to an administrator for the answer, which she in turn posts. Other times she’ll ask her followers a question—such as to name a favorite class. She gleans most of the information she shares by logging into her mother’s School Messenger account, for which she’s turned on notifications on her phone.

As if running her Instagram account and attending virtual classes haven’t kept her busy enough, Gabby and her fraternal twin, Alexa, have started a mask-making business, Pacifico Design Co. So far, they’ve made more than 500 masks, with part of the proceeds going to the Color of Change Education Fund and Feeding America.

Although Gabby has already been accepted to Michigan State for next fall, she hasn’t yet fully decided where she will go to study business/marketing. Her long-term goal, though, is an exciting one.

“My ultimate goal is to become an FBI agent,” she says. “I’m going to try to get a lot of experience in the real world that would help me accomplish that goal. We’ll see what happens!”