Graduation is a highly-anticipated life-changing event for students, but this year, the pandemic has forced schools to change up how they celebrate this landmark.
Howe Sound Secondary is one institution that's had to find a creative solution to make a commencement work while social distancing restrictions are in place.
Instead of having a massive commencement gathering as usual, the school is opting to break up the event into several smaller events, each with groups of less than 40 to 45 students, said school principal Nick Pascuzzi.
That way, the whole class of 2020 will have a chance to have their big day while maintaining social distancing. There is one big part of the ceremony that will happen, regardless of physical distancing, said Pascuzzi.
"One of the key moments for the students is walking across the stage to receive their diploma, so the walking across the stage part we'll be able to facilitate," he said.
The exact details of how the diploma hand-off will work have yet to be determined, but it's likely they'll be laid out in an artful table arrangement so students can pick them up without coming closer than two metres to any of the school officials.
"As they walk across the stage, they would move their tassel from one side of the cap to the other, which is emblematic of the completion of their public education," Pascuzzi said.
Only students will be permitted at the ceremonies, but the events will be livestreamed so friends and family can watch. Each ceremony will be recorded, and the plan is to compile all of them into a video that students can watch from start to finish.
School officials are looking to hold the screening at a drive-in venue, where the whole graduating class can watch the movie together safely from their cars.
This option was chosen after students in the graduating class completed a survey that gave them the choice to either have their ceremony this year with COVID-19 precautions or wait until next year, when restrictions may be lifted.
Students picked the former.
As for prom, it's unclear what the future may hold. Pascuzzi said it has been cancelled but the event has traditionally been put together by parent volunteers. They may come up with a substitute event in the future, but that remains to be seen, he said.
For the valedictorians of Howe Sound, this year's developments have been unexpected, to say the least. However they seem unfazed.
"I think what's happening is that people are coming up with creative solutions and I think we're going to make it work, and it'll still be a good year to graduate," said Jon Gill.
Times may be challenging, but Gill is choosing to see the bright side of ending high school on a rather unusual note.
"I guess that different doesn't have to be bad, right?" he said.
"It could be a cool experience and it's going to switch things up a little bit, and I think that's interesting.
"Change is never easy for most people, and I think it's very easy to be disappointed in this. It's totally OK to be disappointed, but in order to make the best of it, how I would want to do it is trying to move forward," said Gill.
The pandemic won't be stopping Gill from pursuing his post-secondary education. He'll be pursuing a Bachelor of Arts double major either in-person or online. He'll spend the first two years studying at Sciences Po university in Normandy, France. For the last two years, he'll be at UBC.
Gill will be one of the two valedictorians who will be making speeches at every single one of the ceremonies this year.
Joining him will be Alexandra Laviolette.
Laviolette said that it was a unique honour to be giving the speeches this year, given the circumstances created by the pandemic.
"We have the luxury, actually, of getting to see everyone graduate. We would be the only two, so we're really privileged to have the opportunity," she said.
"It's all alphabetic too, so you're not graduating with maybe your best friends, for example. So for me and Jon, we get to see everybody, which is something that I don't want to take for granted. It's a pretty amazing opportunity that we have right now."
Laviolette said that it's key to stick together in these times.
"We need to remember we are here for each other. Just because we are not physically seeing each other doesn't mean we don't care about what's going on in our homes and our own personal lives," she said.
Laviolette said she's been doing everything she can to keep in touch with people in the meantime.
She still gets to see classmates via Google Meets, which allows people to get a glimpse of each other in their natural habitats.
"I think this has actually been an eye-opener for me to show how privileged I am to live here in Canada but also in Squamish," said Laviolette.
"And I have the luxury to the education of going online and just having that conversation, I mean it's incredibly sad that we don't get to have prom and we're going to be split up for commencement, but, I think, looking at the bigger picture, people are sick right now, and if we can flatten that curve by staying home and not having a prom then I am OK with that, because it means people get to live."
Laviolette will be going to the University of Calgary, majoring in both anthropology and archaeology come fall.
"It's been a pleasure for the past six years — I've been with these classmates since Grade 7 — and I've got to know most of them through these past six years, and it's the best grad class you could ever graduate with. So kind, so sweet and so caring — which is something that you don't always get, and I think we all like to empower one another," said Laviolette.
"We're definitely trying to keep that positive empowerment attitude up."
At Coast Mountain Academy, head of the school, Mike Slinger told The Chief on May 7 that plans for the school's 20 Grade 12 grads are still being ironed out.
"We did have to cancel our prom, which was supposed to happen on Thursday. We had a grad with parents event that we started last year," he said, "But we are still working on plans."
Slinger said the school is waiting on more details from the provincial government about what is allowed in terms of gatherings.
"So groups of 50 or less, we know we can probably do something with our students," he said. "It will combine probably some form of in-person participation, with a live-stream to the bigger community."
Caps and gowns have been ordered and photos arranged, he said, and the target date for grad celebration is June 18.
After five years at the helm, Slinger is the outgoing head of school, having announced his departure on Twitter recently. He commutes from Port Moody to Squamish each week and has taken a position at the Urban Academy School in New Westminster, which is closer to home.
It is a decision he made pre-COVID, but working from home during the pandemic has solidified the decision to be closer to family, including his parents, who he has been able to help with things like grocery shopping since he has been working from home.
Brett Logan, currently a teacher at the school, will be moving into the head role for the next school year.
Quest University didn't have its usual commencement, but managed to find a way to mark the occasion.
The school's landmark end-of-year keystone projects were changed up. With these projects, people aim to answer a key question that brings their studies in the context of the real world. Typically, each student presents their findings at the end of the year at a TED-talk style event.
However, this time, they were told to use online multimedia platforms to get the message across.
The results, according to Quest tutor — that's what they call their professors — Marina Tourlakis, were an impressive mix.
Students created podcasts, made animated films and created lecture-style videos among other things.
While they couldn't present them in person, the projects were posted online on the school's website for all to see.
Normally the keystone event is paired with a ceremony.
But this time, the teachers had to think of something else.
Tourlakis said she came up with the idea to invite students to join them in an online version of what are known as WURSTs, which stands for Wednesday Unrequired Social Time.
WURSTs are a longstanding tradition for the teachers, who use it to hang out and build bonds in an intimate setting. But students hadn't typically been part of the fun before.
"This was meant to be in lieu of what we normally do, and the beginning of a transition that we just started to try out this year of sort of inviting them to act as peers as opposed to as our students at the end of our journey," said Tourlakis. "It actually ended up being quite lovely."
So they hosted a WURST online and the students of the graduating class joined in.
For the hour or so, they spent the time sharing fond memories. Each student would describe a highlight of their experience and then call out another student to be the next to speak.
"They went on at length, each student relating everything from having a forest party to a paper that they read in a course on social justice that will stick with them for the rest of their lives," said Tourlakis.
"Amidst the loss of the in-person celebration, this was kind of a different but also lovely way for us to actually hear a little bit more from students about how the last four years have gone for them."
~With a file from Jennifer Thuncher
