Face-to-masked-face: Harwood’s 2020 graduation honors tradition, reflects the times
June 26, 2020 | By Lisa Scagliotti
The was pomp and circumstance, bagpipes and sunflowers. But there also were face masks and families in parked vehicles on the front field at Harwood Union High School.
Welcome to high school graduation, June 2020 edition.
The weather was glorious last Saturday for the big day for 110 students in their black and gold robes and stoles. (Two exchange students in the class had since returned home.)
The fact that it still played out on the school’s front lawn was testament to student organizers who lobbied to stick as closely to the traditional ceremony as possible given the global COVID-19 pandemic. While the public health crisis relegated students to learning from home for the final three months of their high school careers, they worked with school staff to put together a commencement close to what they have expected since freshman year.
Principal Lisa Atwood oversees her final graduation ceremony as she retires this year after 32 years with the Harwood district. Andy Bishop Photography.
“To the class of 2020: Wow! Who would have thought it was going to be like this? No one could have ever scripted it that your senior year would go this way,” Principal Lisa Atwood said in her opening remarks. "Remember when we all thought that proficiency-based learning was going to be our biggest challenge? Boy were we wrong.”
Instead of a giant tent with hundreds of seats for family and guests to join the senior class, a smaller tent covered a stage for speakers and for students to walk one-by-one to receive their diplomas. To keep with social distancing guidelines, seniors and their families were asked to attend in one vehicle with everyone wearing face masks when they were out of their cars.
WDEV broadcast the entire event live on the radio and online and Mad River TV had a camera crew in place to record the event now on its website.
Some accommodations were made to keep parts of the traditional program such as a single bagpiper playing off to the side and recorded music from the school jazz band and chorus. Teacher and photographer Andy Bishop prowled the scene with multiple cameras in hand to capture the sights and details that he collected into a massive album for graduates and their families.
A vehicle parade followed the ceremony with a caravan of graduates, friends, and family winding its way first through Waitsfield with a finale down Waterbury’s Main Street construction zone bookended by fire trucks.
Once underway and live on the airwaves, the program unfolded much as planned. Principal Atwood expressed her relief at reaching this moment in the school year, her last of 14 as an administrator and 32 years overall in the district.
“This is not how I certainly planned to end my last year at Harwood and I know it's not the way you wanted your senior year to go,” Atwood told the class.
Mixed in with the expected graduation send offs to follow dreams, learn new things, give back, and make a difference, the principal’s message made it clear that the separation this year started earlier than usual.
“Know that you are never alone,” she said. “You are resilient. You are strong. You are courageous and you are amazing. Know no matter where life takes you, this will always be home. You are always welcome here. We have missed you -- we will continue to miss you.”
19th century lessons for today
Retiring history teacher Greg Shepler delivered the keynote address with an introduction by senior Anne Fennelly who ticked off some of the best trivia from the resume of a teacher she pointed out who had taught some of the class members’ parents “back in the day.”
History teacher Greg Shepler teaches one last lesson in his commencement address. Photo by Gordon Miller.
A native of Michigan, Shepler went to high school with Madonna before moving to Vermont where he earned a law degree at Vermont Law School but pivoted to teaching after just a couple years as a lawyer. The veteran teacher didn’t dwell on his 31-year career, however. From the podium looking out at the sea of windshields he taught a little history for a few more minutes.
He recounted historical events in the lifetimes of the graduates born after 9/11, in the throes of monumental technological advances, and in the wake of the “great recession” that spawned the expression “too big to fail.”
“I’m glad that didn’t take hold in the classroom,” he quipped, imagining out loud students offering that as a way to dodge a bad grade.
He connected the current pandemic in which people in Ireland have stepped up to help Native Americans hit particularly hard by COVID-19 out of their debt of gratitude to Native Americans who sent funds to Ireland during the mid-1800s famine there. The lesson: physical distancing norms due to the virus should not prevent people from helping each other.
Using another 19th century example, Shepler pointed to a Vermonter the new graduates might emulate. He recalled that Abraham Lincoln in 1858 challenged the incumbent U.S. Senator from Illinois, Stephen Douglas, “a Vermont transplant born on the west side of Mt. Ellen” in Brandon.
Shepler recounted how Douglas described his birthplace in a debate answer about his childhood: “‘I was born in the most glorious place in the world, the state of Vermont. Vermont is a great place to be from.’” Shepler underscored the sentiment, “Class of 2020, take those Vermont roots with you.”
Under bright sunshine, the procession to the stage for diplomas was orchestrated with teachers and staff directing groups of 10 students each as they left their cars wearing masks and stood six feet apart in line. They individually crossed the stage to receive their diploma from Atwood, stopped for a photo, and walked off to be handed a long-stemmed sunflower and a brown paper bag containing a class t-shirt and treats.
Afterward, where the program simply said “Special Message to the Class of 2020,” Atwood announced that Harwood 2001 alumna and rock artist Grace Potter had recorded a message and song for the class from her home in Topanga, Calif. The audio was played over the loudspeakers and Atwood said the entire clip will be included in the graduation video the school will share with the class.
An unlikely speaker brings receipts
Following diplomas and Potter, student speakers took turns addressing the crowd there in person and listening over WDEV.
Senior Sam Crafts artfully began by lowering expectations. “I’m not entirely sure why I was chosen to give this speech. I didn’t particularly like high school. In fact you could say the opposite,” he began.
Samuel Crafts delivers one of three student speeches in the program. 'Don't take anything too seriously,' he advised those students still in school. Photo by Gordon Miller.
He directed his remarks to the young people in the crowd including siblings of the seniors. “I just want to give you guys some advice on how to make the best of high school even though you hate it,” he said, sharing that he relates to the kid who quietly sneak-plays a video game in class.
Crafts went on to share a list of candid, wry and astute observations to those still in the trenches. “My first piece of advice is: go to prom. Even if you don't have a date or if you don't know if you will have fun, just go. It’s something you don’t want to miss out on.”
Next: “Be passionate about something. Pick up an instrument. Read books. Play a sport,” he said. “Find something about school you can enjoy. It will make the rest a lot more bearable.”
Another bit, perhaps from experience: “Realize that it's ok to quit things. Maybe soccer isn’t turning out how you wanted it to or you aren't getting anything out of a class you're taking,” he explained. “It’s ok to try something different.”
Before long, it was clear that his words applied to everyone within earshot.
“Do the right thing. Stand up for yourself and for others, even if you end up standing alone,” he said. “Just be nice. Do your best to help your peers even if you don't have all the answers.”
Scanning the crowd, he gave an example: “Give the lost middle schooler directions to the upstairs gym. Remember, you were once that lost middle schooler. Those hallways seem a lot bigger to them than they do to us.”
He recommended visiting with teachers during lunchtime to ask questions or just to talk because, he said, relationships with teachers are some of the most important and meaningful. “We have some truly amazing people teaching us here at Harwood, so take your time to get to know them.”
His list held up to the end. “Lastly -- this is a big one -- don't take anything too seriously,” the new graduate said. “It will help you develop a sense of humor about life, and it will help you feel less overwhelmed.”
And just minutes after announcing to the world how he didn’t particularly care for high school, Crafts closed with this: “That’s my advice on how to make the best of the weird formative years we spend in that brick building. No matter how much you think you hated it, or how you'll never go back to your old high school, a part of you is going to miss that big brick building. A part of you is going to stay in that big brick building. Cherish that part of you that’s going to stay here.”
Together one last time
Lili Platt in her remarks was thankful for the in-person graduation noting that many students hadn't seen each other in months. Photo by Gordon Miller.
Three young women graduates rounded out the commencement program. Lili Platt expressed gratitude for the ceremony that brought the class together one last time. “It hasn’t always been easy for this class. We didn’t finish Harwood together, and some of us haven't seen each other in months,” she said.
She echoed Atwood saying the graduates are keenly aware that they should use their voice to shape the world. “We can call out when people tell us our voice doesn’t matter. It does,” Platt said. “We know this. We see mass movements driven by people standing up for what they believe in and we are destined to do the same.”
Senior Amelia Tarno presented the class gift to the school: Class of 2020 t-shirts to every teacher and staff member with the main gift being a $600 donation to a new wellness center at the school that will be a resource for student social and emotional health. “It is extremely important … [that] evey necessary measure is taken to make sure that every student feels safe and happy at Harwood,” Platt explained.
Young takes a victory lap
Throughout the ceremony, at points where one would expect the crowd to applaud, the scene erupted in extended stretches of horn-honking and cheers.
In her turn at the podium, graduate Julianne Young elicited the crowd’s most rousing reaction. Like others before her, she cheered the in-person ceremony. “I don’t know about you, but I'm just glad my last event at Harwood Union High School was not a Zoom meeting,” she said.
She went on to talk about perseverance and how both she and her class needed that quality. She recalled learning the word -- and the concept -- in fifth grade from her teacher, Mandy Drake, who died in 2015 after battling liver disease. “At an early age, I learned from her that life may throw you hurdles, but you must keep fighting for the goals you hope to achieve,” Young said.
A three-season athlete in cross-country, Nordic and track, Young ticked off all of the 10 state athletic championships the school won during the four years her class was at Harwood.
Seizing the moment, she started an anecdote: “I’ve noticed something about our male athletes here at Harwood. They tend to wear their medals around school as a symbol of pride, as a symbol of team, and a symbol of success,” she said.
Julianne Young's speech where she revealed her state championship athletics medals gets one of the biggest reactions from the crowd. Andy Bishop Photography.
“However, as a female athlete …,” she began, removing her graduation cap then she reached down to a shelf in the podium pulling out her own medals on red-white-and-blue ribbons one at a time, counting each one slowly as she slipped them over her head: “1-2-3-4-5-6-7.” The crowd reacted with surprise, drowning out Young’s remarks with cheering and an extended burst of honking horns.
“As female athletes, we not only persevered, but we did things seven times better than most,” she said.
In closing, Atwood noted that Harwood’s Assistant principal Sam Krotinger is also ending 20 years at Harwood, where he has worked as a both a teacher and in his most recent role as an administrator. He leaves to be principal at Warren Elementary School in the fall.
New co-principals for Harwood start July 1: Megan McDonough comes to Harwood from Edmunds Middle School in Burlington where she is principal and Laurie Greenberg joins school from Mt. Abraham Union Middle/High School in Bristol where she is an assistant principal for seventh through ninth grades.