‘Opportunity to forge our own path’
Published 10:30 pm Monday, May 15, 2023
In the Nikiski Middle/High School gymnasium Tuesday night, more than 25 high school graduates emerged from the mouth of a doghouse facade, crossed a stage and stepped into their future.
Under a net of turquoise, black and white balloons and to the tune of “Pomp and Circumstance” as performed by the Nikiski/Middle High School band, hundreds of family members and friends packed into the bleachers and filed into floor seats to watch their senior graduate.
Graduate Adrienne Muir opened the ceremony with the national anthem, followed by Student Body President and Valedictorian Jessica Perry. Other attendees included Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Superintendent Clayton Holland and Board of Education member Jason Tauriainen.
Musical artist Taylor Swift was a subtle star of the night, with both the valedictorian and salutatorian invoking the singer during their speeches and one of her songs featured in the ceremony’s slideshow presentation.
“In the words of Taylor Swift, ‘It can be really overwhelming figuring out who to be, and when,’” Perry said, invoking Swift’s address to New York University’s 2022 graduating class.
Still, Perry had a few words of her own for the graduates.
“Each of you has a very special place in my heart,” she said. “As we go into the next phases of our lives, we’ll get the opportunity to forge our own path and become who we were meant to be.”
Included in a slideshow presentation arranged by Serenity Freeman, which shuffled through childhood and senior pictures for each graduate, were Hannah Montana’s “I’ll Always Remember You,” and “Wherever I Go” and Taylor Swift’s “Never Grow Up.”
Both Perry and class Salutatorian Savanna Stock attributed their academic accomplishments to their friends, to their family and to God. Stock said in her own speech to students that no dream of theirs is too big.
“Don’t let anyone limit you from your potential and most importantly, don’t limit yourself,” Stock said. “Transition and change can be hard, but … There is no one right way to take on life.”
Graduates exited the gym to the beat of their class song, Lady Gaga’s 2011 anthem “Born this Way.” Stock, Freeman and graduate Celina Martinez led seniors in the turning of the tassels ceremony, which was rounded out by the explosion of confetti cannons and a shower of balloons.
Reach Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/peninsulaclarion.
Spring graduates
Mya Akers
Tre’Len Anderson
Nicholas Barnes
Nathan Bourdukofsky
Drake Brankel
Marina Carew
Antonio Cazares
Charles Chamberlain
Jessica Clucas
Jesse Colton
Emma Edgar
Serenity Freeman
Timothy Goodnight
Drew Handley
Celina Martinez ^
Adrienne Muir
Dwyght Mullins
Hunter Neal
Shelby O’Brien
Jessica Perry *^#
Braeden Porter
Corbin Reichert
Zachary Rogerss
Danya Schwalb
Jasmine Smith
Savanna Stock ^+
Braydon Whiteside
KEY
^Honors Diploma
#Valedictorian
+Salutatorian
*National Honor Society
