Miles graduates!

The big event this week was Miles’s graduation from high school, after 6 years at Lane Tech. The ceremony was held at the UIC Pavilion, and with the sports arena setup and the liveliness of the kids, the event was very cheery and high-spirited. First an establishing shot to show how many graduates took part. My rough count of names in the program indicates there were 1020 students graduating!

The band played Pomp and Circumstance and the students proceed into the arena. Here, Miles walks past the closest steps to the stage. His height, beard and red cord (for the writing center) help find him in the crowd. He also has a green cord on for graduating Magna Cum Laude, with a GPA of 4.0-4.9. For any grade / math geeks out there, this is on a weighted scale, which means that honors and AP classes are calculated at a higher point than the standard 4.0 scale. For the general and international reader, this is the second highest rating, after Summa Cum Laude. Miles did very well!

Seated for the ceremony. If you follow from the student in a wheelchair in the lower right, then go straight up in the photo, you’ll see Miles. Beard and red cord!

While all the graduates were seated, there were speeches by the class valedictorian and the school principal, Mr Tennison, both of which were really good. The class valedictorian had a lot of references to school and social stuff that were pretty funny, and Mr Tennison focused on the importance of being kind to one another. It was a very touching theme. With so much emphasis on success and achievement at this time of the kids’ lives, switching gears to emphasize the importance of kindness was a nice reminder.

Then they proceeded by rows to have names read and hands shaken with the principal on the stage.

Despite the ceremony lasting two hours, the important moments can go by very quickly, so the next photo shows Miles coming down the stairs already! Also, it was hard to get a photo in focus of Miles actually up there on stage. They said his name, he shook hands with Mr Tennison, and he walked down the next steps to get his photo taken by the official photographer. Note the two podiums on the stage. Because of the massive number of names to read, they have two readers so that it goes much more quickly, and a line fed in from two sides. Each reader also has a helper. The kids each have a card that has their name written out on one side and written out as how it should be said on the other side. Due to the school’s diversity, there are names from all over the world and they try to do justice to the pronunciation! So the kids hand the helper the card and the helper hands the reader the card, to keep things moving.

We sat with Sarah and Charlie and also cheered for Thomas. Here’s Thomas proceeding to the stage (in center, with a friend of his).

Whoa, crystal clear focus on Thomas coming down the steps!

After all the names were read except one very last student, the reader asked “should we take a break here?” which got a good laugh. Then he read off the last name and there were huge cheers – nice perk for the poor kid who was last in that line! Then Mr Tennison went back to the podium and led the students in moving the tassles on their hats from the right to the left side of their caps, and announced that by the authority of the Chicago Board of Education, he declared them all graduates of the Lane Tech class of 2019. It was hard to hear that bit because of all the cheering! Caps were thrown and everyone was really happy. Then the audience dispersed through one door and the graduates through another, and everyone ended up in a very small space outside the pavilion, where the students got to feel the Lane Tech crush one last time – the school is so large changing classes at school involves a lot of bodies moving slowly in small spaces – and their parents got to experience it too. Crowded! We found Miles easy enough (again, tall, beard, red cord!) and gave him some big hugs.

Then had a chance to take some pics with Thomas – friends since before elementary school!

Moms and sons! Seems like just yesterday we were discussing A Wrinkle in Time at the Merlo library book club!

Kat joined us too but we didn’t manage to get her in any photos, same for Miles’s friend Dylan, who was there to cheer on Miles and Spencer (who was seated across the arena and was part of the farther line, so I didn’t get him in any pictures). Thanks for coming, Kat and Dylan! Will get you on the blog at the next opportunity.

And if I may say so, congratulations to these 4! Let’s hear it for the parents!!!