More than 300 students at Wheeler High School received their diplomas on Tuesday.
The Class of 2026 held commencement exercises at the KSU Convocation Center with plenty of plaudits.
Principal Sara Fetterman said that the seniors will be receiving nearly $20 million in scholarship money, and a majority of them graduated with honors.
Another 14 will be entering the ranks of the military or the National Guard after high school.
“This class exemplifies a true sense of community,” said Fetterman, in her first year at Wheeler after coming from Sprayberry, and recalling its commitment to community service.
Those distinguishing marks may be many, but seniors speaking to their classmates offered some sobering reminders of what they’ve gone through, and how to remember their days in high school.
Senior class president Kassidy Sweeney recalled that at times, the rigors of being a high school student can make them feel “overwhelmed,” and not just academically.
“We still pushed through, and we made it through,” Sweeney said, applauding her classmates’ demonstration of patience and resilience “that has made us stronger people.
“Remember these lessons and take them with you.”
Valedictorian Vidya Sinha, who will be attending Stanford University, expanded on that theme and asked the graduates to consider how their experiences now will be remembered in the years to come.
“There’s something special, the feeling you can come out together in the confines of a classroom,” she said.
But this class, she added, has had to endure experiences that go far beyond an academic setting.
Halfway through their education, they experienced the closures and disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is no certainty about anything,” Sinha said, adding that perhaps the greatest lesson the Wheeler seniors have learned is that “we’re willing to look uncertainty straight in the eye and keep going.
“In a few years, these memories will belong to strangers,” she added. “But for now, they belong to us.”
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