When the provincial government announced earlier this week that up to 150 people could gather outside for events, the local high school opted to break their close to 120 graduates into four separate groups for four separate ceremonies on Monday, June 28.
Of course, with four unique ceremonies, you need valedictorians. And with that in mind, Central decided to take a special step for Grad 2021.
And with that, Larissa Bohlken, Affaf Kashif, Emily Pippus and Emily Steinhauer have all been named valedictorians for the upcoming ceremonies.
“We’re allowed to have 150 people at each of our cap-and-gown ceremonies, and because of those restrictions, we can have 30 grads at each ceremony and each can have four guests, which adds up to 150,” explained Central principal Stephane Gauvin. “So we needed to have four ceremonies, and we thought that we might as well choose four valedictorians.
“Since they can each give a live speech at the ceremony instead of recording a speech and playing it over a speaker, we thought it might be a nicer touch,” he added. “Each group will have their own valedictorian, each will have a little bit of a different take and we felt that was the best way to do it this year.”
Traditionally, the top graduate academically is named valedictorian at Central. That’s no different this year, but if they had to choose one, it would have been close —all four were within one-and-a-half per cent of one another in the high 90 per cent average range.
“It was so close academically you’re almost splitting hairs at that point, so it feels pretty good to be able to be able to say we have four based on how great these students are,” Gauvin said.
Needless to say, after last year’s non-ceremony — as the pandemic first took hold, graduates simply stopped by the school, were met at a table, handed their diploma and left — the chance to honour their Grade 12s for a year of strange circumstances and equally hard work will be special.
“It’s such a huge relief. We’re thrilled,” Gauvin said. “We’ll be holding them outside, in front of our bell tower which will be a nice backdrop, so it’ll be an interesting and unique ceremony. It’ll be really nice to have the kids be able to walk across a stage and get their diploma.”
The first graduation will take place at 9 a.m., followed by ceremonies at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
