TCPS honors Class of 2024 graduates in ceremony at Hope Church

ADDIE DAVIS, Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo
·2 min read

TUPELO — Tupelo Christian Preparatory School honored its Class of 2024 graduates during a ceremony at Hope Church the evening of Saturday, May 18.

TCPS’s mission is “Leading students in partnership with Christian families, to know Christ and make Him known through rigorous academics, challenging athletics, stimulating arts and servant-hood activities,” the school’s website reads.

The 46 graduating seniors entered the church to the tune of “Pomp and Circumstance.”

Seniors Bounds Simmons and Jonathan Rorie Scott delivered the opening prayer and scripture reading, respectively. Scott read 1 Timothy 4:12, the Class of 2024’s chosen verse for the year.

In the New International Version translation, 1 Timothy 4:12 reads, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

School board chairman Jonathan Freer welcomed the graduates’ friends and family and congratulated the seniors.

“While the term ‘commencement’ is used to describe a ceremony in which degrees and diplomas are conferred on graduating students, the primary definition of ‘commencement’ is a beginning or start,” Freer told the seniors. “So while we are here this evening to celebrate the close of your high school career, we are also celebrating the beginning or start of the next journey you will embark on.”

Salutatorian Sophia Cervantes and valedictorian Alla Franks also spoke to the gathered crowd.

Cervantes advised her classmates to dream big and act boldly as they head on to whatever comes next.

Franks thanked God and the parents of all the seniors as well as the coaches, teachers and faculty who supported the Class of 2024 in their educational journeys.

“We have the great opportunity to make our own special mark on the world,” Franks told her classmates.

TCPS head of school Andrew Carter and principal Kenneth Roye presented the graduates with their diplomas.

“As we continue to the next chapter of our lives, we can always look back at the years spent at TCPS with a smile,” Cervantes said. “So graduates, hold on to the memories. They will hold on to you.”