Clovis Online School 2020 Graduation Speeches

Speaker: Jacob Hall

Hello and welcome to the graduation ceremony for the Clovis Online Class of 2020. While this ceremony looks different to what we would normally expect, it is a celebration nonetheless. I would like to thank the wonderful teachers, staff, parents, and trustees that have helped me and my classmates along this journey. Each one of us has been brought together by unique stories and circumstances, but we have all made it to the same goal.

For many of us, a cap and gown seemed so far out of reach at one point in our high school career. This stage is the last place many of us would’ve expected ourselves to be right now. We got here, not by the conventional path, but because we had the perseverance to find a path that led us to our goal, even if it’s not the path we would’ve envisioned. Some of us are here because Clovis Online gave us the freedom to pursue our dreams while handling school at the same time. Others of us were offered a critical second chance, and a much-needed new beginning. Some of us may have even been brought here by circumstances out of our control, and found the chance to continue our education in the face of life-changing obstacles.

The last scenario applies to me. My family has been given a rare genetic mutation, causing my mother, my siblings, and I to suffer from various diseases. My sister’s struggles started when she was nine months old. My mother has been fighting her disease for about eight years now. I, on the other hand, started my high school career excelling in the classroom and on the basketball court. While I had been surrounded by medical issues as early as I could remember, high school had about as normal a start as I could have hoped for. I was making my way along through freshman year, when my life had completely changed. My health began to deteriorate. I began to spend less time in the classroom and on the court, and more time in the doctor’s office or hospital. This resulted in many 504 plans, transfers, independent studies, and a seemingly insurmountable pile of schoolwork and obstacles to climb over. I had tried just about every school in CUSD, even some out of the district, yet none seemed to fit my circumstances. During Christmas time, halfway through my junior year, I found myself in the hospital for two weeks. Towards the end of my stay, I was greeted by serious diagnoses, and a message from my school advising me to find a new campus due to absence. With no doors left in sight, I was told about Clovis Online. Clovis Online allowed me, a student who has felt as if life had grabbed him by the collar and dragged him from place to place, to take the reins back for myself and regain control. I now have the ability to help take care of my mother and family, as well as myself. Doing all of this while getting my schoolwork done was finally possible. After long days and nights at the hospital, being able to say “I got an A on my test today, I didn’t miss class, I’m on track,” was the bit of normalcy and achievement I needed to keep going.

The Class of 2020 came into this world under the shadow of 9/11, and we are entering our adult lives in the midst of a pandemic. With all of the turmoil the world has been in, us Clovis Online students find ourselves once again able to adapt and continue our schooling. The model of Clovis Online is one to be followed and utilized in these uncertain times, as it has served us during our personal struggles.

As this world continues to change, I am confident that this class will change and adapt with it, as we have time and time again. We will do great things in the face of adversity. I can’t wait to see what this class will accomplish in the future. I believe that years from now, everyone will look back in hindsight at all this class has done, and say, “it was always 2020.”

Speaker: Brooklyn Holland

GOOD AFTERNOON, family, friends, faculty and fellow graduates. Welcome to Clovis Online High School Class of 2020 graduation ceremony. My name is Brooklyn Holland and it is an honor to speak to all of you today.

Graduation marks the end of an extraordinary chapter in our lives. With this chapter closed, I am certain that many of us are already anxious about starting the next one. Luckily, we have all now been given everything we need to write our own stories. Perhaps one day our stories will become best sellers.

All of us have our own unique reason as to why we attended online school. My journey began here when I was in the 8th grade. Dirt racing has always been a passion in my family, which started with my father and of course, “the apple didn’t fall far from the tree” when I fell in love with racing at the young age of 9 years old. Thankfully I’ve been very successful in the different classes I’ve raced in through the years. I’ve won a few track champions, was named “Driver of the Year,” and won the “Inaugural California SpeedWeek.” I also starred in the racing video called “Queens of California.” Today I still race “Sprint Cars.” For those of you that don’t know what they are I’ll explain in a few words. The cars weigh about 1,450 pounds, including the driver, and it has about 750 horsepower. The car also has a large top wing that is controlled by the driver, so the air will push the car down and make it stick to the clay dirt. In my eyes there’s no racing like sprint cars…its fast, furious, and you don’t have a lot of room for mistakes.

While I was attending school and racing, it was very difficult and there just weren’t enough hours in the day. So, my family started looking at other options, and thankfully life got so much better when my mom found Clovis Online School. I enrolled immediately and never looked back. It was a win-win situation for my lifestyle. I was able to race out of state, while still keeping up on my education.

Staying ahead of my work got addicting, it was a challenge for me. I found myself attending summer school every year, too. Doing so, I was able to finish my senior year early! And as I stand here today, I’m proud to say I just finished my first semester of college, to pursue my dream job as a “Flight Nurse” before I actually graduated from high school!

If I had to repeat my journey again I would choose you “Clovis Online” for the flexibility with my years spent here.

Lastly, thank you to my teacher Mr. Riofrio that has been with me since the beginning. You were always so kind and understanding, helped me when it was needed and kept me on track. I will forever look up to you. To Mrs. Shelby, thank you for always answering my texts during dinner time or late at night. You’re an angel in my eyes.

So, in closing I would like to say “Congratulations” to my fellow classmates. We did it! And we are going to excel in this ever-changing world we live in. May you stay strong, stay safe, and most of all, stay healthy.

Thank you.

Speaker: Maddellyn Cumming

Welcome family, friends, and staff. The last couple of months have been hard for so many people. As I have grown up, my mom has always told me, “we’ll make the best out of it.” No matter what it was, she was always confident that the best would come out of a hard situation. The older I’ve gotten, the more I realize how correct she was. High school was rigorous and trying most every day, but thanks to my support team, I was able to get through those rough days by taking a deep breath and keeping my chin up. I always made the best of things.

High school is supposed to be the best time of our life while growing up. We find out who we are, what we are made of, and what we love. For some, it is sports. For others, theater, dance or music. For me, it was GOATS! I found my passion, I found my people, I found what made me happiest. The long days (and nights) spent traveling to my mentor’s house to train were grueling, but, I loved it. I travelled not only California, but around the country showing livestock with my best friends. I loved it! While winning blue ribbons was always fun, most of my memories were made with all the people that I met and friends that I made.

Chasing my dreams with my goats and cattle while trying to maintain an academic standard was no easy task. As any high school student who plays a sport, performs on stage, or works knows, it is extremely difficult to manage our time efficiently. It is these types of extra-curricular activities that help prepare us for a well-rounded (and not to forget an enjoyable) life. If it was not for the opportunity offered at Clovis Online School, I would not have been able to chase my dreams while working towards my high school diploma.

Many wonder what a day in the life of an online student looks like. For me, I woke up almost every morning in the dark to feed my animals. Some days, I would then work up to eight hours online. By late afternoon and as well as at night, I would exercise or train and feed my animals again. Some days I did the bare minimum of schoolwork. Some days I set goals to finish classes before the day ended by working non-stop, asking my teacher to unlock tests at all hours, including late night and early morning. Some days looked very different. There were days I would sit in the passenger side of a truck, for hours on end, watching the lines in the road while barely even logging into school. Sometimes, I would spend most hours awake, sleeping only a few, getting up, feeding, watering and exercising goats in the middle of nowhere. Then getting back in the truck for several more hours, smelling awful I might add, to finally reach an exciting destination. Thank you, Clovis Online School, for allowing me to chase that dream.

On June 3rd of 2019, the most important person in my life became very sick. She had an aneurysm and almost lost her life. That woman is sitting in the front of the room today, my grandma Mary. She spent almost two months in the Stanford hospital. So many days I spent driving back and forth from Stanford to home. Not only to assure that I was able to spend time with her, but also, there was the need to spend time with my animals who depended on me to live. She fought for her life and we depended on nurses and doctors to be there for her while also needing to be there for so many others. One other time recently she had been in the hospital, we were talking about my plans for college. At that time, I had no idea of my plans. It was that day she said to me, “You could have been my nurse all this time. You would make a super nurse.” I spent time thinking about that. A couple weeks later, I made the decision to become a nurse. I am excited to say that in the fall I will begin my pre-reqs, at College of the Sequoias. After I complete my Associates, I will apply to the Nursing Program.

Thank you to all of my support team. Thank you to my mom, dad, and sister for pushing me to do better, supporting me in all I did, and always making sure that I stayed on track or ahead. Thank you to my amazing grandma, for driving me to meetings and always reminding me to do important things! Thank you to my mentors for leading me in the right direction, in specific, Justin and Jennifer Burns, Sunny and Erin Sharma, Garrett Bowe and Julie Adams, and so many more! Thank you to the friends that were there not only on the hard days but always there to support me at my livestock shows, in specific, Hanna Hamre, Chris Bowe, and Faith Walden. Thank you to my teacher, Mrs. Shelby, for always being there on those late nights and early mornings, and for always pushing me to achieve the goals I set for myself. It was not easy to log in daily or work M-F as often as I was traveling the country. And I know it was not always easy for you to be on the other end of my schoolwork! Thank you to anyone and everyone who has helped me along the way. You all inspired me to keep chasing my dreams and helped me make them turn into reality. And to all of the people that I have met along this journey, thank you for making high school so much fun! I would not have been successful without each and every one of you! I was able… “to make the best of it.”

Congratulations to the Class of 2020. WE DID IT!

Speaker: Hope Arabella Ancheta

Welcome family, friends, teachers, administrators, and board members. My name is Hope Arabella Ancheta, I want to thank you for joining us in celebrating Clovis Online Graduating Class of 2020.

With that being said, today I get the privilege of sharing the exquisite journey I’ve been through while attending Clovis Online.

I first started Clovis Online second semester of my junior year. A lot of my peers have questioned my decision, asking me, “Why would you leave your friends?” “How come all of a sudden you want to drop everything here?” Truth is, my previous high school experience wasn’t as picture perfect as it may have seemed; from sophomore homecoming princess, being a three-time national cheer champ and being “popular.” The reality was that I felt obligated to uphold a certain image, always needing to have the cutest hairstyle, keeping up with the latest fashion trends, and even wearing the trendiest shoes, basically needing to be perfect every day. I was constantly worried about my appearance. I even had a little mirror in my purse checking how I looked before each class, not that it mattered to anyone else, but I felt that I needed to look perfect every second of the day. I felt pressured to look my best when I picked out my outfits the night before and woke up an hour earlier just to do my hair and makeup. I would wake up early so often I’d come to school tired due to staying up late trying to find the perfect look. My brother and sister always told me, “who cares, you’re literally going there to learn then leave, you’re not even going to see half these people after you graduate.” They were right, I mean, I’m graduating with a whole different class right now.

Aside from that, high school came with drama that became overwhelming for me. Long story short, people showed their true colors and now I know who my real friends are. That’s why I’m thankful for my two closest friends, Sarah and Micaela, who I’ve known since eighth grade and who are also graduating with us today. We may not see each other often, but I know for a fact I can always count on them.\u0009

My sister, who also graduated from Clovis Online, explained why coming here would be the better choice. She said, “Okay listen, are you happy at your school?” I said, “No, I absolutely hate it.” So she said, “Okay here’s the thing, I think you should switch to Clovis Online.” My parents didn’t quite agree at first but then my sister started to state all the benefits I could receive from joining online classes, then my parents started to agree a little more and understand the benefits. She was stating the fact that I could wake up whenever I wanted, which I am so grateful for. To be able to start school on my own time, and be able to learn at my own pace was amazing. Not only that, but I can do school work in my pajamas all day if I wanted to! And who doesn’t want that?? My sister continued to add in and say if I didn’t understand the lesson, I could always rewind the video and take notes again that I didn’t catch the first time, that doesn’t happen often in regular classrooms. They tend to teach the lesson once and move on. Besides that, it definitely gave me the chance to focus more on my music, as I have a passion for singing.

Clovis Online helped me achieve good grades consistently and I’d like to thank Mrs. Bronzini for that. Without her help and support, I don’t think I would be the individual I am today. She has always checked up on me and made sure I was on track. I don’t remember one teacher at my previous schools taking the time to step in before my grade could drop any lower. But, Mrs. Bronzini was there every step of the way, that is what teachers at other schools should do, not when their student is already failing and then jump in to help. My sister wasn’t kidding when she said Mrs. Bronzini was the best since she had her as well. Mrs. Bronzini took the time to help me understand, pass my classes weekly, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a teacher who cares as much as Mrs. Bronzini does.

Since attending Clovis Online, I’ve been able to feel more like myself and have become stress free. It’s been about two years since I’ve been dragged into some kind of drama and the weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Yes, DRAMA. FREE. High school isn’t just about academics, you’re judged daily by your peers which leaves you to sometimes wonder, “Am I worthy?” A loaded question that teenagers shouldn’t have to ask themselves, but it’s the sad truth. Clovis Online has allowed me the time to distance myself socially and really focus on my academics and myself to be able to figure out what I want in life.

My cousin mentioned that I should start journaling and write something upbeat and inspiring and ask myself, “What do YOU want your life to look like tomorrow?” All of it is possible when the pen is in your hand. What I took from this is that you can achieve anything as long as you’re the one in control. So, I believe that we can all achieve greatness.

I want to thank everyone who has been a part of this journey from my family, fellow online students, to faculty and administration for giving me a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We must understand our individual stories do not end here, but grow because today is the end of a beautiful chapter but the beginning of an even brighter story.

So, congratulations Class of 2020, we made it!

Principal’s note

Dear Seniors,

What a year it has been! We started the year off just like any other, and then ended in a whirlwind of change and uncertainty. In spite of this, you made it! Although this year ended like no other, it is important to remember all of those that helped get you to this point. As your principal, I want to extend thanks to the many parents, guardians, grandparents, brothers and sisters, family and friends who encouraged, pushed and supported all of the graduates along their journey over the past 13 years of their education. I hope our seniors can see the love and sacrifice made by those around them that helped them make it to the graduation stage.

I also want to thank our graduates. They have proven to be one of our best classes yet. They have all persevered through an unprecedented time in not just American, but in global history. The class of 2020 will forever be known for the unique and amazing ways they dealt with the rapid and challenging changes that happened as their senior year came to a close.

The Clovis Online Class of 2020 rose to meet those challenges and made it through. In fact, we are graduating our largest class ever in spite of these challenges.

I know that the graduates of the class of 2020 will be uniquely prepared to face the world beyond high school and as they move into the next phases of their lives. Colleges are shifting to more and more distance learning, and employers are hiring more people to work from home than ever before.

Our students will navigate either with ease and comfort, as they have already shown they have the determination and self-discipline to work and learn in an ever-expanding digital world.

At the start of the school year, nobody would have predicted the way it would end, but our seniors, the Clovis Online class of 2020 showed their courage and grit and focused on what was important. I am proud to be the principal of this school and of these amazing students.

Congratulations to the Clovis Online School Class of 2020.

Ben Clement

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