Graduation

 Here it is people, a few graduation pictures from Friday night and a couple pictures from the 8th grade promotion held this past Saturday. 

This arch and lights were used the week before for prom.  The arch provided a backdrop for prom pictures while the lights lit the pathway into the cafeteria. 

It is customary to reuse as many of the prom decorations as possible due to the high cost of shipping them up here.  Shipping is about as much as the kits.

In the picture to the left, you see the chairs where the graduates sit after they file in.  Friday night, we had 21 graduates, 3 who took 5 years to finish and 18 who finished in the customary 4.  The people seated behind are the parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, and other relatives who attend.

One tradition is for seniors to take time to give their parents a rose at graduation to thank them for all the support they got during their years of schooling.

 This is a quick picture of the graduating class of 2017.  The two young ladies in purple should have graduated the year before but one had to take time out to have a baby while the other made some not so good choices as a freshman. 

The two young ladies with the yellow bands are the two who graduated top of the class and received scholarships to the state college system.

Both are extremely hardworking young ladies who managed to do well both in academics and in sports.

 This picture shows one of the 8th graders walking in from the locker room area.  He's following the same path the seniors took the night before. 

I've worked with many of his older siblings over the past 11 years.  The middle school students walked quite a bit faster than the seniors the night before.

I didn't take a picture of students after they passed through the arch because their family members and friends stood on the other side of the barrier to take pictures as they paused before heading for the row of chairs from the night before.

These are the students who were promoted to 8th grade.  There is a good chance that many of them will not finish school in four years. 

The reasons are many but its a fact of life out here we are trying to change.  Several students applied to Mt. Edgecombe which is a boarding school for Alaskan Students.

It offers so much more than we can due to the limited staff we have.  Some of the girls chose to wear their prom dresses because this is one of the few chances to wear it while others chose to wear the traditional Quspuk.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a few pictures of graduation and promotion from a rural school in Alaska.