'Sartell High School will always be a place you can call home': Seniors celebrate graduation

Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa, St. Cloud Times
·2 min read

Sartell-St-Stephen High School seniors filled their own gym Saturday night, celebrating their graduation and also looking for what was yet ahead.

The evening was filled with seniors speaking, and started with Grant Clark, student council president, and Taylor Chaika, honor society vice president, presenting the class colors.

Seniors Mitiku Nies and Joshua Nguyen gave recognition and 'thank you' to the SHS Faculty and Board of Education.

"Thank you for your hard work." Before introducing , they gave one final "Thank you" to their classmates.

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Ridlehoover paraphrased a colleague when speaking about the difficulties students faced during the pandemic.

"For those who have claimed to walk to skill in snow up and down hill both ways, you have absolutely nothing on these students," Ridlehoover said.

"Continue to be the life of the world, spread kindness hope and good will wherever you go and remember, Sartell High School will always be a place you can call home," Ridlehoover concluded.

Senior Hannah Spode then spoke, saying she procrastinated writing her speech just like "every other paper I had to write in high school."

"We are who we are, and we can always be proud of that, but for now we are officially graduated," Spode exclaimed.

A recognition of students with high academic achievements was presented by school counselors Dawn Brown, Justine Kirkham, and Noel Meyer.

Principal Tim Wege shared words of wisdom with graduating seniors.

"No one gets to where they're at by themselves and you need others as much as they need you," Wege said.

After all the students had their names called, senior Kate Ellis shared some words. She added up numbers that are important to her graduating class, from the numbers with the lunch codes they received in elementary school to the number of minutes it takes to get out of the parking lot. It all adds to 2022, she said.

"What will define you and what will you do with your numbers? I can't wait to see."

Abdulla Gaafarelkhalifa is the education reporter for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him agaafarelkhalifa@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @AbdullaGaafare1

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Sartell-St-Stephen seniors celebrate graduation on Saturday