You’d need a calculator to count the tears and hugs at Leroy Greene Academy’s Class of 2018 graduation

--- Published on May 24th 2018 ---
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LGA commencement ceremony

You’d need a calculator to count the tears.

Or the hugs.

Leroy Greene Academy’s Class of 2018 graduation ceremony tonight was extra special in many ways: It was an extremely small graduating class, 77 students, so every Lion knew each other – and the staff – very well. Like family.

More importantly, these students helped create the school – they were there at the beginning, the first day LGA opened its doors, and these graduating seniors are the first ones to spend their entire middle and high school years at the campus. They built a legacy.

These Lions – and many of the staff – have witnessed every milestone in campus history: the birth of its sports program, its first AP exams given, its first Homecoming game, first prom, first graduation, first Dia de Los Muertos event.

So goodbyes were hard to say tonight, throat-choking, tear-jerking, both by staff and by graduating seniors.

“It’s difficult because you guys are family and we struggle about not seeing you guys on a nearly daily basis,” said Scott Fitzgerald, Director of Student Affairs. “We are a family, tight-knit, we all get along.”

The Faculty Speech was a veritable six-year trip down memory lane by Fitzgerald and by Andrea Rodriguez, Pathways Director, and Ben Odell, Activities Director. All three were founding faculty at LGA. Their speech ended with a heart-tugging, page-turning video of laughs, accomplishments, and campus shenanigans through the years.

Odell hammered home the family theme. “Picking each other up when we’re down. Or bickering, but eventually resolving those arguments. This is what family does. And this is what we’ve grown to be. We have that unconditional love for you. You will always be our kids.”

Every graduating senior at LGA has passed all coursework required to enter a UC or CSU.

“I’m so unbelievably proud of you,” Fitzgerald told the graduates. “It has been an honor to watch you grow into the amazing, talented, caring and funny adults you are today.”

Andrea Rodriguez said these Lions have had a huge impact on her life over the past six years. “Class of 2018, you were our kids before we were parents,” she said. “You were why I wanted to be a mom. You gave me that desire. So thank you.”

Student Jazmine Zamora described LGA as something special, not anything like the movie, “High School Musical.”

“At Leroy Greene, teachers greet the students with smiles and waves, almost like they were greeting an old friend,” she said. “At Leroy Greene, we have a small student population … Because it’s so small, we all know each other. We have our own friend groups but we are all interwoven from one person to another.”

She described LGA’s staff as highly committed to student success and not hesitant to nag, if necessary, like parents. “For certain, there is no other school with a close relationship of staff and students that resembles one of a caring guardian and their child,” she said.

Looking to the future can be scary, student Mack Gregory conceded.

“All this time, we have had pretty simple minor choices – like, should I take another AP class or weight training, which, while it seemed important as a junior, probably won’t matter in 10 years. We have started to make the decisions that will matter far down the road, though: Applying to colleges and job training programs, submitting intent-to-register forms, and taking out loans, getting jobs, starting our careers, earning money, gaining experience.”

“It seemed really scary at the beginning of this year,” Mack said, but “everyone here has helped” to make big decisions less stressful.

Principal Leslie Sargent said she’s honored to be a part of the Lion family. “I look forward to all of the great things that you will achieve in the your future,” she told the graduates. “LGA has supported you to ensure that you are college and career ready, now it’s up to you to take all you’ve learned and show the world what Lion Pride is all about.”

To Jazmine, the Commencement Ceremony meant see you later, farewell, not goodbye.

“In years to come, we will come back to our high school reunion,” she said. “It will be faster than anticipated and, hopefully, the tight-knit feeling will not have faded away. We will talk and laugh as if time had never passed. Until that time to reunite, though, we part ways for a while. Best of luck to all on your journeys.”