Victoria Park grads mark special day with individualized ceremonies

By Lethbridge Herald on June 14, 2023.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Victoria Park High School principal Cayley King, along with student advisor Nikki Cale, celebrate Amber Kirk during her graduation ceremony Wednesday at Henderson Lake Park.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
LETHBRIDGE HERALD

Students from Victoria Park High School had the opportunity to take part in outdoor individualized graduation ceremonies over the last couple of days at Henderson Lake Park. 

Principal Cayley King said they had 58 students graduating this year, which is a few more students compared to last year. 

“We have elected to continue on with our tradition of having individualized graduation ceremonies for every one of our 58 graduates,” said King. 

She explained that the outdoors ceremonies came out because of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, but it became the perfect way to celebrate their graduates moving forward. 

“We were actually searching for a new way to celebrate graduation when COVID came along, because in the past we would only have 60 per cent of our graduates attend the ceremony and the celebration, because we have so many people that are uncomfortable with large crowds, and when we switched to the individualized ceremonies for students and their special people we have nearly 100 per cent for the last four years in attendance,” said King. 

The ceremonies take place at Henderson Lake Park under a couple of tents. 

Each student has an assigned time where they go through the full ceremony, with each lasting 20 minutes. Two ceremonies take place at the same time. 

King said celebrating all 58 graduates this year, with each ceremony lasting 20 minutes, was set to take two days to get through all of them, running ceremonies continuously. 

“We have an overall speech that comes from administration that takes them through the graduation process and then we also have a tribute that is given to them by their advisor, and they talk about the individual pathway that had led them to where they are today,” said King. 

She said after that, the graduates are presented with a grad gift box that they’ve created which contains their grad certificate, thank you and congratulation cards, some little goodies for each individual, and a graduation hoodie that is monogrammed on the side with the name of their choosing. 

“And then any awards as well are presented at the time when the individual is graduating,” said King. 

King explains that being able to provide individualized graduation ceremonies for the students is very important and it is the perfect match for them. 

“Being an outreach school, we try to design the pathway towards graduation one step at a time for each of our students, and we just find that really everything that we’ve done with them has been designed with them as individuals in mind, and so it’s fitting that now that they’ve reached the finish line we celebrate them as individuals as well,” said King. 

She explained that each student follows the regular Alberta Education curriculum, they meet the graduation criteria set by the province, but they reach that goal at their own pace and in their own way. 

“We do have the opportunity just like the other high schools do, to have students participate in graduation knowing that they still have a couple of weeks to tie up some credits, finish up some loose ends, possibly even engage in five credits or so in a summer school class, but knowing that by the time fall comes around, each of these individuals will go into their next stage, with an actual high school diploma that’s granted by the government,” said King. Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter