DE PERE, Wis.
The De Pere
High School senior class of 2016 walked for their diplomas on Wednesday, June
8.
288
graduating Redbirds took the stage at the ceremony to toss their caps for the 2,500
audience members.
“Graduation
is one of the best events of the year,” says guidance counselor, Carla Duevel. “It’s
thrilling for us and for parents.”
High School
secretary, Lea Ann Allen says it can be a bittersweet time. “You’re always
happy to see the students move on, but you sometimes miss the familiar faces.”
According
to the De Pere Hi-Light, and
counseling office, 90% of graduating seniors are enrolled in further education.
Counselor
Carla Duevel says this graduating class is unique in that more students than
ever have opted to attend a technical college or trade school. “We encourage
the students to find what works best for them, four-year college isn’t always
the best,” says Duevel.
This year’s
ceremony took place in the school’s very own gymnasium, the first time in three
years.
Nick
Joseph, Principal at De Pere High, says it was a challenging change. “We’ve had
the ceremony at St. Norbert’s the past few years, but they are under
construction so we had to so some rearranging. Thanks to our staff, it all ran
very smoothly.”
Two senior
class delegates spoke to their peers, and Principal Joseph delivered a commencement
at the ceremony.
“The ideas I wanted to instill in
our graduates are to follow their dreams, do what they love, and to try their
best to make a difference in the world,” says Joseph.
Following graduation, seniors were
treated to a Grad Bash celebration of games and prizes until 4 am Thursday
morning.
Troy,
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a good topic for a hard news story. The statistics and quotes you had throughout made this a great read and didn't leave me searching for more. So great job on that! I also thought it was a cool tid-bit to throw in that the ceremony took place in their gym for the first time in three years, that also made me want to learn more about why.
Overall, great writing!
Thanks Jen,
ReplyDeleteI struggled a bit with choosing a topic for this story, because I didn't necessarily feel all that comfortable approaching strangers to talk to them about recent events. Especially because most hard news seems to gravitate toward the tragic and unusual. So I wanted to keep it light, and I thought this would be one of those feel good stories we seldom get to read.
Troy-
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a great topic for the hard news story. I read your response to Jen's comment, and I agree. I had a hard time choosing a hard news topic because I didn't want to approach someone with a sensitive topic as a student, but your story is great. It was relevant to the time (graduation) and I think it was interesting to get the angles that you did. I like how people are more accepting of trade schools. They are great for people that know exactly what they want to do. I also think that the flow of your story was great. I had the nice beginning, middle, and end sequence without being choppy. I also like the last sentence that tied up the story with the little party. You definitely followed the inverted pyramid. Awesome work!
Troy great job! I too, felt uncomfortable contacting someone about recent events going on in the world so I tried to keep my story general and neutral as well. This is a very appropriate topic as this is the time of year for graduations. Your story flowed very well and all of your sources were very relevant. Great job overall!
ReplyDeleteYou get to the point, but you also find a way to throw in good details too (like hosting it in the gym). Well done!
ReplyDelete