Class of 2024 seniors share why graduation is a momentous occasion, milestone for them

Graduation: It’s that special time of year when caps are tossed high, parties are thrown and students will walk the stage clad in ribbons, cords, caps and gowns to “Pomp and Circumstance."

The Class of 2024 for the Sioux Falls School District will celebrate its rite of passage Sunday. But this momentous occasion culminating 13 years of K-12 education hasn’t looked or meant the same for every student.

Four seniors, one from each high school in the district, shared their stories of resilience and inspiration with the Argus Leader in the weeks leading up to graduation.

Each spoke of their unique experiences as an immigrant, a Deaf student, a cancer survivor and a student who is autistic, showing why graduation isn’t as routine as the annual event may seem, and how much effort and work it takes to culminate to this point.

Here’s what those four seniors, who will graduate along with nearly 1,700 other students during commencement ceremonies Sunday at the Sioux Falls Arena, taught us.

'Shout out to my mom'

Washington High School senior Francis Mulbah immigrated to the U.S. from Liberia in 2018 with his mom Jacqueline and sister Frances, 13, who attends Whittier Middle School.

Mulbah said leaving his home country was an important opportunity for his family, since “back there, it’s not as stable as it is here." But they left behind extended family, like Mulbah’s aunts and cousins, who he said have become more like brothers and sisters.

“We came here to better our life, our future and have a brighter future,” he said. “Moving to a new place, you know nobody. You have to start over, learn your community, meet the people in your community, start at a new school… It was kind of hard at first.”

While English is the official language in Liberia, Mulbah explained that it’s spoken with a different accent than it is in the U.S., which made it hard for his teachers and peers to understand him at first. He praised his English Language Learner teachers for helping him adjust to American English as they taught him a language at the same time they taught him each subject in school.

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Mulbah stayed involved at WHS with marching band drumline, track, the principal’s advisory council, Link Crew, Connections, Kiwanis Club, JROTC and more.

He also took the health careers class at the Career and Technical Education Academy, which gave him experience in both nursing home and medical settings at Avera Health. At the end of the class, Mulbah and his peers will take an exam to obtain their certified nurse assistant certificate.

He said the class and real-world experiences were “eye-opening” and “fast-paced.” This pushed him to work harder. He wants to go into healthcare because it’s his passion to meet people and help them.

“Helping people makes me happy,” he said.

After graduating with 441 of his peers at 7:15 p.m. on Sunday, Mulbah plans to attend Augustana University in the fall with the help of a scholarship to pursue nursing, then receive his nursing license and go to medical school to become a doctor.

His dream is to one day return to Liberia and build a big, open hospital, “where money doesn’t matter, it’s just to help the community out, and make sure the well-being of people, their physical and mental needs, are being met.”

Walking the stage Sunday is a major milestone for Mulbah and his family, since he said he plans to be the first of his family members to finish college. His mother Jacqueline started college, but didn’t get to finish.

“Shout out to my mom for really pushing us to want to accomplish more than what she did. She had to drop out and take care of us,” Mulbah said. “It’s a huge factor for my family in general. I will be the first one to graduate high school, start college and go through it.”

'Don't think anything negative about school'

Lincoln High School senior Rebekah Burr is one of the only Deaf students at LHS.

But, she said it doesn’t make it any harder to connect with her peers and teachers, and it hasn’t affected her education. (Burr signed in ASL and her interpreter Darcy Rokusek said her responses aloud for the interview with the Argus Leader).

“It’s easy,” Burr signed. “It’s the same for you as if you were meeting new people in a school. I feel it’s the same for me. I find ways to communicate.”

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She came to Sioux Falls as a third grader at Harvey Dunn Elementary School after attending Deaf schools in Florida and California. Her dad Brian is Deaf, and she has a few friends in the Deaf community and goes to Deaf events. Burr said some of her friends know some ASL. She and some friends even started a sign language club in her sophomore year at LHS.

Burr said she’s excited to attend Gallaudet University in Washington D.C., an institution for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students, to study social work after graduation, and then work in counseling and therapy for younger children. She said she would mostly prefer to work with Deaf patients and clients, but is willing to work with anyone if she has an interpreter.

“I like helping people,” Burr said. “I have a couple friends that work within that area, and they felt that I would be a good fit, because they know that I like to help other people solve problems.”

The idea of working in that field formulated after Burr attended Camp You Be You (UBU) for Deaf students at Lake Poinsett during the summers, where she worked with a lot of other Deaf children and helped them solve problems. The camp also includes advocacy, discussions and presentations on various issues Deaf people experience.

Counseling has also helped Burr in her life, too. She said she has lots of peers and adults who’ve helped her throughout school saying, “‘It’s OK, you’ll be fine. You’ll get through it,’" and guided her along.

To younger students at LHS, Burr would give the advice, “Don’t think anything negative about school.”

“Just continue to keep coming, doing the work,” Burr added. “Everything will be OK. It’ll be fine, and you will succeed.”

She and 458 of her peers from LHS will walk the graduation stage at 11 a.m. Sunday.

'You're going to get through this'

Roosevelt High School senior Steven Harmon was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer when he was 15, a sophomore at the time.

It started with bad headaches and pressure in his head, to the point where Harmon would throw up and see double.

He and his parents went to an area emergency room Nov. 27, 2021, when staff ran scans and found an anomaly in Harmon’s head. He was immediately referred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he got an MRI of his brain and spine, and received a diagnosis the next day: a non-germinomatous germ cell tumor (NGGCT).

“It was definitely a sad, sad day, but I remember I wasn’t really scared. I wasn’t really emotional,” Harmon said. “I’m really strong in my faith, and so I just felt like God was there and put his hand on me and said, ‘You’re going to get through this.’”

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Harmon described NGGCT as the “worst kind,” since he said his tumor was part benign and part cancerous, and chemotherapy only works on cancerous cells. The other half had to be surgically removed.

All totaled, Harmon ended up having three brain surgeries, six rounds of chemotherapy and 30 days of radiation, which meant him and his mother Michelle mde multiple trips to Mayo Clinic from the end of November 2021 to May 2022. Ever since his last surgery, his medical team hasn’t seen any reoccurrence of the tumor, and he’s in remission.

When he wasn’t busy fighting cancer, he stayed busy in high school with basketball either as a center, team manager, statistician or on the unified team; running 400s, 100s or unified relays in track and field; playing cello in the symphony orchestra; or, being involved with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, National Honor Society and Cancer Awareness Club.

One of his favorite memories of any of the sports he participated in at RHS was during his sophomore year, after he had completed three rounds of chemo and had a brain surgery. He was able to watch the RHS team from the video room. All his teammates came out onto the court, looked up at Harmon and waved.

“That was probably the best moment I’ve ever had with basketball,” he said.

Graduating with 409 of his peers at 4:30 p.m. Sunday will be a big accomplishment for Harmon, he said.

“For me, just looking at where I came from sophomore year, being in the hospital and getting treatments, to now walking and graduating, is really great. It’s a happy moment,” he said, noting his family, friends and teachers will be happy for him, too. “I think it definitely brings people joy when you go through something hard like this, and they get to see you thrive, get through these hard times and push on through.”

Harmon plans to attend the University of South Dakota in the fall to study biochemistry, and wants to go to medical school, do medical research and study neuro-oncology, something that’s always piqued his interest ever since he went through his own cancer treatments.

'Remember those memories and cherish them'

Jefferson High School senior Emily Quanbeck, a student who is autistic, has accomplished a lot in the three years since JHS opened, from helping start the school’s unified sports teams to transitioning out of special education and into regular education classes, which will merit her a standard diploma when she graduates.

She spent one year at RHS before JHS opened in fall 2021, and she stayed involved in basketball through the Special Olympics unified games for Best Buddies, Women’s Empowerment Club, and Serve and Learn Student Association (SALSA).

Quanbeck said she likes choosing to be included and getting together on a team. She sees inclusiveness as an important ability to be part of something.

“To reach for that basket, it takes time and practice,” she said.

Quanbeck speaks a lot about hard work, and it’s something she will share in a graduation speech at the Best Buddy Senior Celebration on May 15, too.

Some of Quanbeck’s favorite memories in high school are playing in the unified games, saying the student announcements over the school intercom and working in the school concessions stand. Quanbeck will graduate with a diploma Sunday and said she’ll probably “have butterflies” when she walks across the stage.

“(I’ll) remember those memories and cherish them,” she said.

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Quanbeck’s counselor, Holly Borchers, said the JHS community will miss Quanbeck when she graduates.

“Emily knows a lot of people in this building,” Borchers said. “She’s very humble. She brings a smile every day. She’s just a joy to have at school. We’re definitely going to miss her, not only in Best Buddies, but just at the dances, at the games, at all the Jefferson happenings.”

She plans to attend the district’s community campus program in the fall to practice some financial and job skills and hopes to attend Teachwell Strive at Southeast Technical College, a special education program “focused on building the skills young adults need to be successful in college,” according to the website. She said she can see herself being a swimming instructor.

To younger students at JHS, Quanbeck said she would give them the following advice:

“Compete for excellence, and don’t stress out so much,” she said.

Quanbeck will walk the stage with 378 of her peers from JHS at 1:45 p.m. Sunday.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls' Class of 2024 seniors share stories ahead of graduation