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By Adriana Meza-Gutierrez and Brianna Thomas-Ruiz/Staff Writers
The class of 2009 were honored in their commencement ceremony Friday night at Keifer Staduim even after worries about the change in the location because of the threat of lightning storms.
After various songs played by the Amat band, the graduates made their entrance, which included the cheers of family members and friends.
After the Lancer choir led sang “Joyful, Joyful” with a solo by senior Elaine Valerio, salutatorian Emmanual Aguilar-Posada then greeted the graduates.
Aguilar-Posada focused on “his confession,” narrowing down to who the class of 2009 are, and who they will become.
“Your beauty is measured by the people you have inspired to be beautiful,” he said.
Another song, a solo by Erika Higuchi, followed the speech.
Then valedictorian Brent Seals had his turn.
Seals focused on the matter of becoming a better person.
“Do more, make more, give more and make a difference,” Seals told his classmates.
Finally, Monsignor Aidan M. Carroll spoke.
“We love you, class of 2009,” he said.
Then, at approximately 8:40, Bishop Amat’s 49th graduting class, which consisted of 338 students, flipped their tassels from the right to the left signifying their completion of high school.
But the location of the ceremony was undecided until about three hours before it was scheduled to begin. School administrators had contemplated moving the graduation into the Carroll Center because of weather forecasts that predicted lightning storms.
“Having the graduation in the stadium has always been an Amat tradition,” Monsignor Carroll said earlier in the day. “It would be very disappointing.”
Monsignor Carroll said that he understood moving the graduation into the gym would cause a major inconvenience for families because it would limit the amount of invited guests to four instead of the usual eight.
Luckily it didn’t come to that.
Principal Merritt Hemenway had been updating the BishopAmat.org Web site all day long about the graduation ceremony.
His last update, which occurred at 4 p.m. read: “Dallas Raines meterologist at ABC-7 Television called to advise us that there is only slight misting in the evening’s forecast. There is no forecast of thunder and lightnening. He wishes all the graduates well. Thank you, Dallas … Graduation will take place in Kiefer Stadium as planned!”
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