Goodbye, drive-bys. Hello, hugs and handshakes.
In-person high school convocation ceremonies and celebrations will make their grand return in the coming weeks, as Cochrane’s Grade 12 students prepare to step foot on stage, after more than two full years of wading through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Having parents and grandparents and siblings there to celebrate what has been quite a challenging three years – this is a celebration of the resilience and persistence of these graduating students this year,” said Marilyn Nasse, principal of St. Timothy’s High School.
St. Tim’s class of 36 grads will be the first to kick off celebrations in Cochrane this year, with their ceremony taking place at St. Mary’s Parish May 27 from 10 a.m. to noon.
Nasse said the school did a great job of honouring graduates the past two years under the circumstances. Both years, St. Tim’s hosted a drive-by ceremony to honour the school’s graduating class.
But there’s nothing quite like the sense of camaraderie that comes from being together, she added.
“There’s something to be said for that feeling of excitement and the feeling of when a group is together just celebrating and honouring that accomplishment,” said Nasse.
Students and staff are eager to return to tradition, but some new ones have also been made over the past two years that are likely to stick.
At Cochrane High School, the graduating class of 181 students plans to carry on a new celebratory event where students wear ball gowns, suits and other formal attire to school, to have their photos taken while they roam the halls throughout the day.
“That was something that was started just to give kids an opportunity to show of their dresses and their suits, which they typically didn’t get to do with COVID,” said Dustin Whetton, theatre director of Cochrane High’s performing and visual arts program.
“Now it’s becoming something that the kids are excited to do because in a way, they feel it inspires the younger kids who are coming up to also look forward to their graduations and look forward to their day.”
Cochrane High seniors will celebrate their graduation June 3 beginning at 10:30 a.m. at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre (SLSFSC) – a new venue for the school’s graduation ceremony.
Assistant principal Tracy Lyons says they have been trying to keep the ceremony in Cochrane, as opposed to hosting it in Calgary, for the past few years.
“The hope and the plan is that after this graduation, we get together with [SLSFSC] to kind of solidify that,” she said. “Hopefully … all of the schools in Cochrane will be able to use Spray Lakes so that our community can do things with our community, and that would be the centre of it all.”
Bow Valley High School, which has one of the largest graduating classes this year of the school’s history, will host its ceremony at the Foothills Alliance Church June 4 at 10:30 a.m.
Just over 200 Bow Valley Grade 12s will walk the stage this year to receive their high school diplomas, according to assistant principal Scott Thompson.
This year, their chosen grad theme takes inspiration from a quote attributed to actress Jennifer Garner, during a speech she made to grads at her Alma mater, Denison University in 2019.
The quote states to ‘Fight for what makes you optimistic about the world, find it, insist on it, dig into it, go after it.’
Thompson believes it speaks volumes to the adversity students and their families have dealt with as of late, and their ability to overcome challenges.
“We get kids that have taken on jobs to help families pay mortgages, they’ve taken on the role of extra parenting because parents were working from home remotely over time,” he explained. “Lots of the normal school experiences that they would have had over the last few years have been adjusted and interrupted.
“And yet they’ve continued to show up with all that … I’m really proud of these kids.”
