Sitting on top of the world
Commencement ceremonies for Lewiston and Clarkston senior high schools send students on to their next adventures
More than 450 high school seniors in Lewiston and Clarkston received diplomas Saturday evening.
Both the Lewiston and Clarkston high schools staged their commencement ceremonies at Lewis-Clark State College’s Activity Center on Saturday. Lewiston’s began at 3 p.m. and Clarkston’s started at 7 p.m.
Before heading into the arena, the students exchanged laughs and captured photos of their classmates dressed in caps and gowns.
Some of the graduates have jobs lined up, while others have plans to head to college in the fall.
Alex Knight, 18, earned his degree from Clarkston High School. He’ll attend Walla Walla Community College in Clarkston for two years before transferring to Washington State University to complete a bachelor’s degree in environmental science.
“I took an environmental science class and it made me think about what I wanted to do after high school,” Knight said. “The career I want to go into is fish biology.”
Another Clarkston graduate, 18-year-old Alyssa Whittle, plans to begin working this summer to save money before enrolling at Brigham Young University-Idaho next January.
She wants to study kinesiology and eventually become a gymnastics teacher.
“Ever since I was about 10 years old, I’ve taught myself gymnastics and I’ve always wanted to help others learn gymnastics skills, too,” Whittle said. “Being a gymnastics teacher would be super fun.”
At Clarkston High School’s ceremony, 170 students received diplomas. Of the 288 students who graduated from Lewiston High School, 16 were named valedictorian and 10 were salutatorian.
Emily Collins and Kobe Wessels, both 18, earned their diplomas from Lewiston on Saturday.
The two have plans to attend LCSC in the fall. There, Collins will continue competing in track and field and Wessels in cross country.
“I’m excited to take the next big step and continue the journey we’re going on,” Collins said.
Blake Nanik, 19, graduated from Clarkston High School. He’s thinking about going to business school to become a gym owner, since he enjoys working out so much.
Nanik said he’s going to miss the teachers at Clarkston who helped him throughout the years.
“One of my teachers, Nikki Porter, really helped me a lot,” he said. “I have a stomach disease called gastroparesis and wasn’t really at school much because of it. But she was there for me all the time.”
Palermo can be reached at apalermo@dnews.com or on Twitter @apalermotweets.
