Perseverence
PAS celebrates more than 100 grads
More than 100 graduates made their way back to the Porterville Adult School campus on Monday morning after completing the remainder of their school year online to take part in the PAS drive-thru graduation ceremony.
Maroon, black and white decorations were in abundance and balloons swayed in the cool breeze as the time approached for the ceremony to begin.
At 9 a.m. sharp, Jennifer Durbin, the first of many graduates to walk, stepped out of her vehicle and received her diploma. PAS Director Staci Phipps greeted each graduating student with a smile, before announcing their names over Pomp and Circumstance, which played in the background on repeat.
As vehicles pulled into the parking lot at PAS, they were asked to drive to the back of the lot
before turning around, parking and waiting for their turn to watch each graduate walk. Some of the graduates drove themselves, while others had cars packed with family and friends who cheered them on as they received their diplomas.
After their names were announced over the sound system, the students were directed to Porterville Unified School District’s (PUSD) Board of Trustees President, Lillian Durbin. Durbin then handed each student their diploma before allowing them to stand in front of one of the staged photo opportunity areas. PAS had set up three different backgrounds for the students to choose from, which allowed for their families to snap as many photos of their graduates as needed. A special tribal blanket was gifted to each graduating Native American student in honor and recognition of their major accomplishment.
Phipps explained the graduation had been broken down into time slots, but on Monday students were continuously coming, one after another. Phipps also stated a few students had been chosen as guests speakers and they had written speeches that will be presented in the graduation video published by Porterville Unified School District.
Phipps said she was in admiration of the PAS Class of 2020 and they inspired her.
“First of all, (the students) perseverance and persistence to finish has been amazing,” said Phipps. “We’ve had a consistent number of graduates even with COVID-19 happening. That for me, the persistence and perseverance, has been amazing and their transition to going online and making sure they finish, no matter what the barrier, was inspirational to me to watch them do that.”
Phipps also had some parting words for the PAS Class of 2020.
“Continue doing what you are doing,” said Phipps. “Use the strength you had to get through this time in the future to get through any other barrier or obstacle that comes along and just get through it. Make it happen.”
PUSD plans to release a video encapsulating each local school graduation on June 12. Traditional speeches will be recorded ahead of time, then included in the video with the drive-thru ceremonies and a photo slideshow of all graduates. The respective videos will be posted to PUSD’S social media pages and uploaded to the PUSD Youtube channel. These virtual ceremonies will be broadcast on Friday, June 12, at 7:30 p.m.