Schools

Germantown High School's Class of 2011

The graduation was held Thursday morning at New Covenant Church.

Marc Lamont Hill strode up to the podium at this morning and delivered the speech the hundreds of graduates seated in front of him wanted to hear.

"When you turn on the TV, the only story about you all is flash mobs and teen pregnancies and incarceration," the hip-hop generation lecturer, professor and guest speaker told the crowd. "I wish they were here right now. That ain't the real story right now!"

The graduates jumped to their feet. It was one of several times they would do so during the speech and during the graduation ceremony, which was filled with words that touched on similar themes throughout.

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They had a room full of parents, family members and friends supporting them at New Covenant. There was plenty of cheering and unadulterated joy during a wild ceremony that honored students both young and old. (Some family members, however, were locked out of graduation when it started and weren't allowed in to watch the processional. Stay tuned for more information.)

The students congratulated one another during the two hours or so that the graduation lasted.

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"With a dropout rate as high as 50 percent, we keep our eyes on the prize," salutatorian Jashawn Kelly said during his speech.

Valedictorian Althea Escorce reminded her classmates that they hadn't done it alone.

Many of them, she said, had support from family and friends along the way. Because the class had gotten so close together, she said, she expected its members to "experience a sense of melancholy" as they left Germantown High's confines.

Those two speeches were augmented by various musical acts—which included "Lift Every Voice and Sing"—and a spoken word performance by Alana Gooden, who was previously entered into Get Schooled's Get MotivatED Challenge for her original piece. 

"Look at me graduating," she said. "Who got the last laugh now?"

Soon afterward, principal Margaret Mullen-Bavwidinsi stepped to the microphone. "It is that time," she said. And diplomas were given out to excited members of the graduating class.

Once that was done, the principal officially conferred the degrees upon the students. A few threw their hats in the air, while others just prepared to make their way down the aisle.

And so they did. With Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out" blaring over the speakers, the students—some of whom were very tearful—hugged and bumped fists with people that they knew as they left.

It's likely many of them remembered another one of Hill's messages as they made their way out of the church sanctuary.

Hill had told the students to "shake off" the haters and to make sure to pursue the goals they truly had for themselves. Every one of them, he said, should go to college.

"This is the first graduation you have," he said, "not the last."

And as he led the chant among the students of "on to the next one! On to the next one!", the students prepared to make their way out of high school and on to their next step.


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