To start things off, the 30 seniors marched on stage from the wings to Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance,” the trio of March No. 1 in the sequence of five the composer wrote starting in 1901. Then once they were seated on the left side, Hector Moreno, one of the seniors graduating with honors, led the singing of the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance from a podium to the right.
The invocation was said by Eric Lacefield. Next was Keyla Diaz, who said her own prayer as well, in Spanish, billed in the ceremony’s program as the Oración en español.
Superintendent Stephanie Dixon then came to the podium for the Superintendent’s welcome. She thanked the large audience for their presence and the BHS staff as well as the district’s board of education for joining the ceremony. “Thank you to all the parents, families and friends who are here,” she said.
In her Salutatory Address, Faith Cruz began by acknowledging the seeming unreality of the day and the difficulties of the past nine months. “This is it. I remember dreaming about the day that I would graduate, excited to go off and begin my adult life. But now that it's here, I haven’t quite internalized it yet. It has been one very messy year, but we still stand here as the graduating class of 2025, ready to take this step into the next chapter of our stories,” she said.
She also hearkened back to the past when she first began at Blevins Elementary and then her realization of the advantages of going to a small school system: “I'm sure many of you know Blevins is a tiny school. When I got here in fourth grade, I was like, ‘Well, where's the rest of it?’ We might not have as much as bigger schools have, but what we do have is a very close-knit class, and I could not be more grateful for that. If we were from a bigger class, we wouldn't know each other as well as we do and I am grateful for that.”
Valedictorian Audrey Lovette first thanked the audience and the school staff. Then she spoke about what she had gleaned from her school years: “I've learned a lot during my time in Blevins School District. This year alone has taught me so much. I learned how to be resilient in stressful times, how to speak up for what I believe is right, and I learned how valuable hard work can be. One of the biggest lessons we all have learned together over the last 12 years is to never give up.”
Lovette likened her time in school to a marathon with many challenges along the route, which included the COVID-era of home schooling.
After her speech, the seniors were turned loose in the auditorium to present roses to family members as music played and images were shown of each one of them from their early childhoods to the present.
When the ceremony was reconvened, BHS Principal Kimberly Turner gave attendees a sense of the seniors’ success in earning scholarships. She first asked recipients of scholarships to stand as the amounts they have been awarded were read. These added up to over a million dollars.
Then the awarding of diplomas began. Each senior received their respective diplomas from the teacher or staff member of their choice. When all were handed out, Turner asked that tassels be switched and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present to you the Blevins High School class of 2025.”
The benediction was said by just-graduated senior Charles Hatchett, Junior, who said “We ask your blessing on this graduating class, guide their steps as they move into a new chapter. Fill them with courage in the face of the unknown, wisdom in their decisions and compassion in all they do. May they care for the values they have learned, see truth, pursue justice and live with purpose. Help them use their talents to make the world kinder, wiser and better.”
Then the graduates marched out to the procession from Verdi’s opera Aida. The tossing of the mortars happened on the stairs after the class posed for photos. They went up quite a ways.
