Congratulations, NHS Class of 2020!
Thirty-four members of the Class of 2020 attended their belated graduation on Friday, July 24. With girls in white and boys in orange, the class met up one final time to celebrate finishing high school.
Spaced out six feet apart on the football field, the class sat before a stage that had been installed earlier by the district’s maintenance crew.
The class was treated to perfect weather – blue skies, a light breeze, and no bugs. The football stands were filled with hundreds of family members and friends, and bystanders stood on the track to the sides of the stands.
The Class of 2020 listened to a heartfelt message from superintendent and high school principal Stacy Price. Price was delivering her first commencement address as a high school principal, and happened to be speaking to her daughter among the graduates.
“This is your moment,” she told them. “Your victory. Your great accomplishment.”
Price asked the graduates to have the courage to do what’s right and try new things, and to be kind to themselves and to others.
“Today is an achievement each of you have in common,” Price said. “From here on out, achievements will be different.”
What each student makes of their lives will impact all of us, she said.
Valedictorians Carlee Corinth and Jared Wallace and salutatorian Julia Seitz also spoke to the class, offering messages of thanks and encouraging classmates to go forward bravely and achieve their best.
“We have missed out on having a normal senior year,” Corinth said. “But what we do have are the precious memories we made together.”
Wallace also noted how the coronavirus pandemic had changed every aspect of daily life.
“That just makes today even better,” he said.
Seitz congratulated the class members on their failures – yes, failures. “Failure is incredible,” she said. “It teaches us how to start again.”
The Newberry High School band, assisted by a few musical adults and joined by four graduating seniors, played a medley from Guardians of the Galaxy. And at the very moment their ceremony ended, the class flung their caps into the air.
Congratulations and best wishes to the Newberry High School Class of 2020!
