On Sunday afternoon 631 seniors at Walton High School received their diplomas, and they were reminded of the many people who helped them get there.
Almost all of those seniors are college-bound, accounting for more than $20 million in scholarship funding outside of the HOPE program. There are 24 National Merit Scholarship finalists from Walton at a school that teachers and students alike admit poses high academic challenges—and stresses.
“You’ve come out of it with a lifetime of friendships, a strong foundation of knowledge and experiences that you’ll never be able to forget,” senior class president Abhijeet Ghosh said.
“And now for the most important part—think about everything that changes in these four years, and compare yourself from then to now.
“How has Walton shaped you?”
Ghosh said that each diploma “represents a culmination of real-world skills that are guaranteed to make everything down the road easier.”
Principal Stephanie Santoro expanded on that theme in urging Walton seniors, as they continue on with college and their adult lives, to continue to “pay it forward.”
She came to Walton as a teacher and volleyball coach in 2002, when another teacher-turned-principal, Catherine Mallanda, became her mentor.
Mallanda, a Walton graduate who for the last four years has been the Cobb County School District’s chief academic officer, attended Sunday’s graduation, just as she is set to retire.
Santoro called Mallanda “a trusted friend” in explaining that “you are where you are because people invested in you.
“Now it’s your turn. The most important investment you can make is in people.”
When those investments are made, Santoro continued, not only are the lives of others changed, but “it transforms yours and elevates everyone else.
The Class of 2026 has done some of that already, having logged more than 58,000 hours of community service in their final year of high school.
Ghosh asked his classmates to “remember the community you came from, and remember the struggles as they get harder.” After all, they’ve done it before.
“When it got hard, we didn’t give up. Keep that attitude up.”
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Related:
- Kell graduates asked to remember: ‘None of us got here alone’
- Lassiter graduates told to ‘throw yourself into that dream’
- Cobb schools announce 2026 valedictorians and salutatorians
- Wheeler graduates urged to ‘look uncertainty in the eye’
- Pope graduates told to ‘make moments of influence count’
- Cobb schools budget approved; Timber Ridge ES principal named
- Kell HS students recognized as Student Emmy Award winners
- Hightower Trail MS named Georgia Military Flagship school
- East Cobb PTA names Margie Hatfield Scholarship recipients
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