CTHS seniors find a new path, graduating as part of the class of 2025

Sequoia Clark was one of 123 celebrated as part of Mat-Su Career and Technical High School’s class of 2025 Thursday night at the Menard Sports Center in Wasilla. But Clark’s career path started long before she took a walk across that arena stage.

Clark, a student speaker during the commencement ceremony, was part of the school’s health pathway, which gave her a head start in the medical field. It gave her the opportunity to be involved with the Future Health Professionals program, also known as HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America).

“Since I was already in the health pathway, I knew this organization could provide me with scholarships, experience, and a deeper understanding of the medical field. But it ended up being even more than that,” Clark said. “I found a group of students who shared my passion for the medical field, and people I could relate to and feel comfortable around. It gave me the opportunity to travel, compete and create lifelong memories. Because of CTHS and HOSA, I am leaving here with certifications and CPR, basic life support, Stop the bleed, and more. Skills that will help me continue my journey in healthcare.”

Clark encouraged her peers to follow their own path.

“So to everyone here tonight, think about the potential that life offers, I encourage you to seize those opportunities when they are given,” she said. “Life often throws those opportunities and I encourage you to not ignore them and to take a chance. CTHS has given more than just an education. It has given me confidence, direction, and a clear path towards my goal. I am forever grateful for the teachers, the staff, and the fellow students who have helped me shape my future.”

In addition to health, CTHS students also graduated after working through pathways that included building, business, culinary and tourism, fitness, human resources, natural resources and transportation.

Keynote speaker Trish Zugg urged graduates to make a plan.

“If you haven't intentionally planned A, B and C for your future, do it now. If you have, make it a five-year plan, revisit it in January, revisit in July of every year. You see, motivation follows action. Don't wait to get motivated. Make your plan, take action, and then motivation will follow,” Zugg said.

CTHS student government president Riley Flynn spoke about how time passes as you get older, and preparing for new realities.

“The older you get, the faster life goes, because as you get older, everything starts to have perspective,” she said. “In some way, we're all on the verge of something incredibly new. we are probably going into blind and that we might find it difficult, and that we might have no experience or point of reference with. For some of us, that might be college, for others, it could be the military or trade school or the workforce.

Flynn urged her classmates to live a curious life, and strive for new experiences.

And today, as we transition from high schoolers to graduates and adults, we return to the unknowingness that we had in our youth. So the key to living a long life is probably a healthy diet and regular exercise and a stable social system, but can it also be taking pleasure in what you do not know? Throwing yourself into everything, with the ignorance of a kid and the joy of one too. So that was my call to everyone, not just those walking tonight, but everyone that has joined us this evening to take joy in the unknowing, to go forward and blunder and embarrass your way through life, naive as a child. Do something you've never done before, even something as simple as traveling a route you've never seen, or switching up your morning coffee order. As you go off and try these new things, you might feel out of your element, but that's okay. At the very least, time will go by slower, as you can try, as you continue to try and experience double things. So get out there, find new things to experience, and stretch your time out as much as possible,” she said.

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