Three Juneau students speaking at their respective high school graduations Sunday took drastically different routes getting to the lectern, and their paths will again diverge widely after their tassels are moved and their caps are tossed.<\/p>\n
But all three share similarities beyond composing words to share with their fellow seniors, such as actively engaging in student government entities, sports and cultural interests outside the classroom. All are also planning to start college this fall with an eye on scholarly professions.<\/p>\n
All three also experienced struggles resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic such as canceled in-person classes for an extended duration, but felt they finally emerged free of those setbacks during their senior year.<\/p>\n
Graduation ceremonies are scheduled at 1 p.m. at Yaakoosgé Daakahídi High School, 4 p.m. at Thunder Mountain High School and 7 p.m. at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé.<\/p>\n
Among the stories shared and people sharing them on graduation day are:<\/p>\n
Kiley Morris, 18, Thunder Mountain High School<\/strong><\/p>\n Morris was born in Juneau and lived in Ketchikan for a few years before moving back to the capital city in the middle of eighth grade, attending Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School.<\/p>\n Though she’s never traveled further east than the state of Texas from Southeast Alaska, Morris is set to head to New Haven, Connecticut, for Ivy League studies at Yale University.<\/p>\n In addition to serving as student body president — and studying for her 11 Advanced Placement courses — Morris stayed busy during her four years at TMHS, serving as captain of the soccer team, math club, Battle of the Books, and Juneau drama, debate and forensics team. She’s also a valedictorian and will be speaking to the class at the graduation.<\/p>\n Looking to her future at Yale, Morris said she hopes to double major in education and either political science or English, and minor in whichever subject gets left behind. Beyond that her future career path remains uncertain — but she’s got a variety of ideas on where she’d like to see it go.<\/p>\n “I want to start teaching in high school and teach English preferably, and maybe volunteer around school activities and stuff like that, and from there I either can see myself going down the legislative path, but I’ve kind of always wanted to open up a bookstore,” she said, laughing.<\/p>\n Though she’s heading across the country, Morris said she can see herself coming back to Juneau — and TMHS — to teach.<\/p>\n “I’m hoping I do just because it is a really good environment here and we just have such a nice community, but it will be fun to taste the new fresh air over there and experience different things,” she said. “My grandma’s a teacher and she’s a big influence, and then the other part of it was just knowing how much my teachers have impacted me and being able to shape how I developed and grow into the person I am and to affect me in a positive way.”<\/p>\n She said the advice she’d give to incoming students at TMHS is to “get involved,” and said she found some of her greatest experiences that happened during her high school career outside the classroom and during the summertime.<\/p>\n Instead of using all of her free time to hang out with friends and relax like many high school students, she partook in opportunities such as the U.S. Senate youth program, the Distinguished Young Women program and Oratorical Contest among other activities.<\/p>\n “You really have to look for those opportunities and latch on to them because we’re at a disadvantage not having all of these big giant names and programs here in Alaska,” she said.<\/p>\n She thanked her fellow classmates for supporting her and each other during all the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she’s grateful for the connections she’s made along the way and is excited for the new people she will soon meet.<\/p>\n “I think we’ve all been each other’s support system all this time and it’s been really key for all of us to just thrive and survive just our high school careers,” she said.<\/p>\n Helen John, 17, Yaakoosgé Daakahídi High School<\/strong><\/p>\n John, a lifelong Juneau resident who transferred to the alternative high school during the pandemic, is the only student who spoke up when officials asked who was interested in speaking at the school’s ceremony.<\/p>\n “I was the only one who said yes because because I’ve done public speaking since I was really little,” she said. “I’m just super excited. I’m really proud of myself for graduating.”<\/p>\n John grew up with a mixture of traditional and Tlingit education, attending Sítʼ Eetí Shaanáx̱ – Glacier Valley Elementary School and Floyd Dryden Middle School, while also participating for years in the Tlingit Culture, Language and Literacy program as a student and then as an instructor.<\/p>\n She said her entry in the program during the sixth grade came after a solo effort to get it started, although she quipped “I didn’t harass the principal.”<\/p>\n “Every day during lunch I would go get my lunch, put it down in the cafeteria, and go to the principal’s office just every day and be like ‘When is the Tlingit language class happening?’” she said. “I was told there was going to be a Tlingit class here. This is why I came to this school. By like the third week of school we had a Tlingit language teacher.”<\/p>\n John initially started high school at Thunder Mountain, but felt more comfortable after transferring to Yaakoosgé Daakahídi.<\/p>\n “I like the idea of having smaller classrooms,” she said. “And my voice really wasn’t heard at Thunder Mountain. It’s such a big school. I really liked it there. But being at Yaakoosgé, I really thrived and found somewhere where I belonged, and was able to advocate for myself. I really found my voice and really learned who I was, and became more confident.”<\/p>\n Among the areas her voice expressed itself was her TCLL background, said her mother, Jessica.<\/p>\n “She has a really great grasp and understanding of the language,” she said. “And when she went to Yaakoosgé they saw that and they were saying ‘Let’s make posters, help us, Helen,’ and so they were really looking at her strengths and supporting her in that direction.”<\/p>\n John also worked with the Douglas Indian Association and was part of a student council board that recently attended the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, D.C., where “we were sitting down and learning the Native laws and then how we can advocate for different things in our community.”<\/p>\n