Graduation events for the Stanley Humphries Class of 2015 took place last weekend.
Just over one hundred smiling graduates crossed the stage, flipped their tassels and accepted their diplomas Friday evening in a ceremony held at Selkirk College.
Congratulations and encouragements were offered by the MLA for Kootenay West Katrine Conroy, Superintendent of Schools Greg Luterbach, Board of Education representative Rosann Brunton and Mayor Lawrence Chernoff.
Principal Aaron McKenzie summarized the Class of 2015 with the word resilience. “Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from most difficulties.” he said. McKenzie continued by mentioning trials the class has had to face including an early end to their grade 11 and late start to their grade 12 years and a school fire that interrupted the current school year.
In his speech, Valedictorian Tristan Wheeler took the class on a trip down memory lane reminding his fellow students of the grade 8 versions of themselves before bringing them up to the present and looking into the future. “As that distant speck grew closer and proved to be more than a speck; rather, it became a boulder larger than the tallest mountain. We had gone from us adapting to the school, to the school adapting to us. After what has felt like eons, we're ready to climb that mountain in record time.” said Wheeler.
Over seventy scholarships and bursaries were handed out along with four major awards. Gabriella Kenna was the recipient of the KT & RE McGauley Memorial Scholarship, given to the top academic student in the graduation class.
Steffani Grondin was awarded the Stanley Humphries Award, the major award of the school. The purpose is to honour a student whose academic qualities, service to the school, citizenship and personal endeavors have been outstanding.
The Leaders' Club award went to Stefany Rasmussen and Hannah Streleoff won the Aggregate Award, both honouring students who were runners up for the Stanley Humphries Award.
Glitz and glamour was the theme of the evening Saturday at the Grand March held at the Castlegar Complex. The students smiled and strutted as a full house cheered and encouraged them on. The grads completed the evening with their prom and dry grad activities.