Perseverance pays off for adult high school grads
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For many, getting a high school diploma is something that gets taken more and more for granted as time goes by, but for the group of new graduates from the Renfrew County Adult High School in Pembroke, their diploma represents a conscious decision, hard work, commitment and dedication, and their graduation is an accomplishment they're never likely to undervalue.
"Certainly, this has not been an easy journey for us," said valedictorian Joshua Mayne in his address. "Many of us have had to balance four plus hours of school with family responsibilities and full-time jobs. Despite these barriers, we have persevered to this conclusion."
The difficulty of completing high school alongside the stresses of adult life was not lost on Renfrew County District Board of Education trustee Terry Harkins.
"When the board trustees are asked which graduation ceremony they'd like to attend," he told the graduating class of 47, "I always, always choose this one, because this is a real graduation. A graduation that involved sacrifice."
Part of that sacrifice, as principal Loran Young pointed out, often involves setting aside long-standing ill-will towards a school system that, for one reason or another, simply failed to connect with many of these students when they were younger.
"Graduates," Young said during the introduction to his presentation of the principal's award, "I really, really want to congratulate you people, because I know it wasn't easy to take the step and walk across the threshold into a school when your experience of school may or may not have been too good."
Although the road leading to the graduation was a challenging one for most graduates, the ceremony was about looking ahead, not back, as Mayne pointed out to his fellow graduates.
"Tonight we all have the right to feel immense pride in our accomplishments," he told them, "and look forward to a brighter future with many open doors of opportunity. Congratulations to the Class of 2013!"
During the ceremony, Christopher Richards won the best attendance and math awards, Christine Capranos won the English award, and Kayla Black was recognized as the most improved student.
The co-op award went to Andrew Providenti, Connie Cheshire and Ivy-Jean Gorgerat both won the Literacy Basic Skills (LBS) award and Crystal Mitchell won the coveted Principal's Award.
Ryan Paulsen is a Daily Observer multimedia journalist.
Twitter @PRyanPaulsen