After four years riddled with COVID, budget cuts and two principals, Talawanda’s class of 2023 graduated. 

“Our only truly ordinary year of high school was our senior year,” senior class treasurer Julio Fuentes said. “And what a truly wonderful year it has been.”

The class of 2023 lost the second half of its freshman year to COVID. Sophomore year was hybrid. Only half of their time in high school was in the high school building.

They graduated in Millett Hall to a crowd of parents and family members yelling and brandishing air horns. Senior class president Jordan Gresham said graduation is not the finish line that some high schoolers see it as, instead it is a jumping-off point for the future.

“As we come to the end of our high school career, we cannot look at it as the end, but rather the beginning of the next phase of our lives,” Gresham said.

After the event, Talawanda high school math teacher Allyson Klovekorn said the graduation was a fitting end to a class that accumulated $8.2 million in scholarships.

“It was a great culmination of a tough four years for these students,” Klovekorn said. “It was great to see them celebrate all of their successes.”

Standing in his blue robes and recently thrown cap, Da’Quawn Roberson was all smiles while looking toward the future.

“The ceremony was great,” Roberson said. “It was a little long, but it was great to be around fellow students and just to finish off in a good way.”