Hannah Styes
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
The 2022 Swain High School Graduation Ceremony was held on Saturday, June 4 at the Swain County Memorial Stadium where Principal Sonya Blankenship welcomed graduates, family and friends to celebrate the accomplishments of this year’s class, who have overcome a difficult past few years.
“This is the first normal graduation ceremony in four years, and I am grateful this class has had something normal, since their high school career was far from normal,” Principal Blankenship said in her opening speech.
She described this year’s class with four phrases: compassionate, strong willed, courageous and genuinely caring about others and the good of the world.
“They don’t always agree. They have strong opinions that are often on opposite sides, but at the end of the day, they find a way to get along and move past their differences. That is an example that our entire world should follow,” Principal Blankenship said about the class.
Graduate Sareena Patel led the ceremony in prayer. Patel graduated with a 4.5833 GPA and plans to attend the University of Pennsylvania and major in public health. After the prayer, the Swain High School Choral Ensemble performed their rendition of “Hear My Voice, Oh Lord.”
After the chorus finished, Principal Blankenship introduced Salutatorian Avery Maples who graduated with a 4.5968 GPA and plans to attend Yale University in the fall to study public policy.
“Let’s put our values to the test, let’s use our common sense and make courageous choices, because we’ll have to in order to make our world better,” Maples said in her speech.
She urged her class to go forward into the future continuing to work together. She also thanked the parents, teachers, and role models who encouraged the graduates along the way and who will continue to do so.
Valedictorian Allison Scheid finished with a 4.6724 GPA and plans to attend Columbia University to study political science and sustainable engineering. She started her speech by admitting that she just recently learned how to ride a bicycle and how you must keep pedaling to keep the bike from falling over. She used this as an analogy to life.
“The entire endeavor has helped me realize the value of perseverance and determination even in the most simple ways. It was as if I suddenly realized the values of these qualities in my own personal experiences,” Scheid said in her speech, referring to learning how to ride a bike. “Perseverance and determination; I could not find two better words to describe the class of 2022.”
Scheid said that we shouldn’t worry about the future because it is in good hands.
“We will change the world because our generation knows how to take matters into our own hands,” Scheid said about her graduating class.
She encouraged her class to be united and to have productive dialogue around controversial issues to make the world a better place.
During the ceremony graduates were recognized for different work force fields and colleges that they would be attending, and graduate Jonah Edwards received the Presidential Gavel as this year’s Student Body President.
Swain High School Assistant Principal Michael Turner summarized the plans of 122 graduates with two joining the military, 49 joining the workforce, 38 attending two-year college and 33 attending four-year colleges. Eleven graduates also graduated from Southwestern Community College and the class earned 1,124 hours of college credit during their high school career. Superintendent Mark Sale, Principal Sonya Blankenship, and Assistant Principal Dennis Jones presented the diplomas to the graduates.
The Swain County High School class of 2022 can be proud of their time and accomplishments in high school during the heavy weight of the pandemic and will go forward into the future continuing to give it their “best and then some.”