For the first time in Lick-Wilmerding history, this year’s graduating class will cross a parking lot instead of an auditorium stage in a “drive-through” ceremony. As the San Francisco Department of Public Health would not allow a socially distanced event at the Lick-Wilmerding campus, the May 30th graduation was moved to the Cow Palace arena in Daly City and will take place in accordance with San Mateo County safety orders. Students and their families will be given a 15-minute window to drive their decorated vehicles
through a queue to receive their diplomas. Students are creating a “live yearbook” to commemorate their unique senior spring. They will participate in a multitude of virtual
events such as a final advising period, final assembly to announce senior awards, and a seniors-only zoom call in which they will decorate their graduation caps. An “alum prom” and traditional graduation ceremony at the Sydney Goldstein Theatre will be held on January 3, 2021 during students’ winter break from their freshman years of college. While there are myriad creative ways to celebrate the class of 2020, there’s no way to make up for lost time at school. Many seniors are processing the fact that they experienced their
last day of high school and they didn’t even know it.
Julia Hatfield ‘20 is mournful of the shops projects she won’t get to finish, the social interactions she can no longer have and the boba teas she’ll never get to drink from
her routine outings on Ocean Avenue with friends. She misses PPP projects, mentoring lowerclassmen and her “hall buddies”—friends who brightened her day but with whom her relationships were isolated to campus. “It’s a sad time,” said Gavin Pola ‘20, co-student body president. “It is crazy that we might not be able to have the chance to see each other one last time and that school came to an end on an abrupt, random Thursday.”
With no in-person way to say goodbye, The Paper Tiger surveyed the senior class to ask what they would have said. Responses were overwhelmed with messages of gratitude, especially towards Lick-Wilmerding faculty and staff.
Amaya Guillen ‘20, Lick’s other co-student body president, said it is evident how much Lick teachers love to teach and care about their students and the subjects at hand. “Thank you for being passionate,” Guillen said, “I recognize it.”
Nevin Chin ‘20 emphasized how all the staff they have interacted with at Lick mean a great deal to them. They want their teachers to know “how much I appreciate all of their mentorship, compassion, and unwavering support” and “how much of an impact they have
made on me both as a student and a person.”
Nick Hoffner ‘20 wants his teachers to know he is grateful for their high expectations, which encouraged him to push himself to earn their respect, and as he got older, his own.
Phoebe Klebhan ‘20 said that her teachers’ “support and unconditional love has meant the world to me.” Her teachers have inspired her to pursue teaching in the years to come.
Pola said a unique quality of LWHS teachers is that on top of creating a rigorous academic
experience, they expose their students to the “social and humanitarian side of things.”
Pola is grateful to his teachers for creating space to talk about
current events and “making an effort to connect with us on a more personal level and having that openness where we can talk to them about real things.”
Junior/Senior Dean Oscar King has made a serious effort to be real with his students surrounding the challenges of the school shutdown. “Like everybody, I wish that everything could have been different,” King said. “I wish that I could have fixed this for you somehow or made it easier.”
King joked that this year is the sixth time that he’s been through high school, the sixth set of kids he has seen from admission to graduation. King wants his students to know that all the emotions students feel about the school shutdown, adults feel as well. “We miss school too, and we miss our friends,” he said.
Seniors also expressed appreciation for their peers for, as Maya Rushlow ‘20 put it, supporting their “mental and emotional growth.”
“I’m just proud of everyone,” Hoffner said. “In four years, everyone just grows up so much.” Hoffner said it has been powerful to watch his peers start “expressing themselves how they want to and really coming into their own.”
Guillen said that when she was an underclassman, Lick was a hard place to navigate. She said that the school environment can be difficult for those who live far from campus, students who don’t come from the same network of independent middle schools as their peers and for women and people of color. Guillen recalled being resilient in the process of nurturing friendships in which she could feel “comfortable with herself.” King said that educators often worry about creating resilience in students. He said that throughout the experience of distance learning, the class of 2020 has shown it’s “grace, dignity, and the resilience that we hoped,” and that it was precisely the community of the class that helped students through. “I personally am honored to witness that,” King said.
Pola said that in adapting his role as president to the distance learning model, he realized how much of an impact he can have in building community, both inside and outside of the classroom.
photo courtesy of the Office of Communications
Through activities such as the school-wide Kahoots, Pola and Guillen hope to bring smiles, laughter and the “comradery and community that is hard to get online,” Pola said.
“It’s fair to say that this sucks,” Pola said, “In this sense, we are the class that is being impacted the most by this quarantine.” Many seniors emphasized that while the harsh
realities of the coronavirus crisis may cause some to negate their disappointments, mourning the lost last months of high school is valid.
Students are hopeful for an eventual reunion. “I’m looking forward to seeing you all again,” Pola said.
