Immanuel Christian grads ready to celebrate in-person

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on June 23, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Immanuel Christian Secondary School students will have the opportunity to celebrate their convocation on Friday in a more traditional way compared to the last couple of years.
“Graduation ceremony will be addresses by a grad speaker and by various members of our community, where our graduates will walk the stage and through the arch, a symbolic way to mark their passing on to post-secondary, the workforce, or trades,” said Matthew Bekkering, principal of ICSS.
He said in the last couple of years graduation ceremonies took place outdoors and they are looking forward to going back to what they have typically done.
“Although the last couple years were really special in their own way of doing something different and unique, this year it’s nice to be able to have more of our community be able to attend,” said Bekkering.
He said after the ceremony they will have a banquet, an opportunity to gather together to enjoy a meal and have some speeches by various students and staff to culminate the time together, and after the banquet there will be a grad party.
“That’s organized by parents with a lot of fun activities for the students,” said Bekkering.
He said it will be a good way to culminate a very challenging high school experience for those graduating this year.
“It’s been a lot for students to adjust to, especially our currently twelve-year class who have had a really unique high school experience. This class last year was the most quarantined class in the entire school due to positive cases,” said Bekkering.
This was particularly true for this year’s students hoping to achieve valedictorian status, but Megan Aleman was able to accomplish it.
“I think this year, with all the changes and transitions, it was just staying on top of assignments and tests, but also I think our school, it’s really special because of the size and the student-teacher relationships are really close,” said Aleman.
She said that thanks to the close relationship she established with her teachers, she was able to get the help she needed whenever she needed it, and that was instrumental into obtaining her valedictorian title by reaching a 91 per cent grade average.
Bekkering said the school’s valedictorian is chosen from students that have academic excellence, are taking a full course load but on top of that, they represent their graduating class in the sense of building into the school culture getting involved in various different ways, whether it’s fine arts or athletics.
“We believe Megan fits that very well as she is not only a strong student, involved with athletics, involved with our grad committee, student council really emerged herself within the community as well,” said Bekkering.  
He said the graduation theme for this year is ‘Unshaken’ and he believes even though they all had different experiences throughout the pandemic, they were hopeful for the future of the students giving them the opportunity to develop talents so they can go onto the workforce, or post-secondary.
“The ability for them to come together as a class and to enjoy the social aspects of school have been really good for them this year,” said Bekkering.
ICSS convocation is at 3 p.m. Friday at Trinity Reformed Church.

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