Houston kicks off virtual graduations for class of 2020

WASILLA — The Mat-Su Borough School District will broadcast 13 pre-produced virtual graduations this week, as the district celebrates its class of 2020. It all started with Houston Junior/Senior High School Monday night.

Houston seniors and their families viewed the broadcast, experiencing one of the nation’s most cherished milestones in an entirely unprecedented way.

“Wow, this isn’t the graduation we anticipated is it? But nonetheless, we did it,” Valedictorian Eli Knapp said.

Houston’s virtual ceremony and those that will follow contain the familiar elements of a high school graduation, from the national anthem to the inspirational speeches from the students, teachers and faculty. Only in this case, it was all done from home in front of computers, tablets and phones.

Students and their mentors may not have had the conventional chance to share their messages through speech, music and video face to face with the whole community, but the fact everything was pre-recorded opened another world of creativity.

A lot has happened in and around the Houston campus over the last four years. All the Valley schools were affected by the earthquake but Houston Middle School was hit the hardest and had to close permanently, causing the merger at the school. The two schools are in one building under one name.

“We quickly learned after the earthquake, things wouldn’t be normal after a while,” Knapp said.

Students like Vincent Mahoney took the time to record and edit a video for one last talk to his class. He talked about how tumultuous the past few years have been between the 2018 earthquake to the current pandemic, cutting to various scenes with unique and sometimes humorous visuals.

Mahoney said they’ve all overcome challenges and there’s plenty of reason to celebrate all the positive changes they’ve made.

“Best of all, we’re the first class to have a virtual graduation,” Mahoney said. “This proves you can knock us down, as a hawk we can always get up and fly.”

In one particular scene, Mahoney set a globe on fire in his front yard and put it out with a fire extinguisher as the camera panned out revealing the film crew, “Now we’re all bored and at home. But you know what though, we’re alone together.”

Knapp and the other speakers came to similar conclusions as Mahoney’s, that the unexpected and unparalleled obstacles they all faced only made them stronger and more connected than ever before.

“We have experienced a lot of unexpected disruptions during our last two years of high school… We learned to adapt to change and face our new challenges,” Knapp said. “We learned to thrive, we need must adjust and go with the flow… and how we must work together to find new and unique solutions to problems.”

There were several slideshows presentations between speakers and at the end of the video, HJSHS principal Ben Howard instructed the students at home to flip their tassels and toss them in the year.

The 2020 grad and Master of Ceremonies, Felicity Soto, tossed her hat in the air during the pre-recorded segment, representing what they were all doing in real time. All her participating classmates did the same as they watched from their homes.

“Graduation is deeply embedded into society’s identity,” Howard said. “High school graduation is a shared experience that many of us hold in common; and it binds us together in multiple ways as a community… the conclusion of one thing and the beginning of another… this will not be the last time these two forces will be at work.”

The complete list of the 2020 Mat-Su School District graduations can be found on the district website.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com.