OV grads focus on finding happiness, chasing their passion

The bleachers at Markowski Field were overflowing on Saturday, June 11, as members of area communities showed up to support Otter Valley Union High School’s graduating Class of 2022.

In culling through some of the graduation speeches heard or read in the past few weeks, I’ve come to appreciate these rites as a community ritual of renewal and inspiration — something to pass on to each successive generation of graduates, but also someth … (read more)

On Sunday, the Class of 2022 gathered for the college’s first together-and-in-person graduation ceremony since 2019. On Tuesday, after a two-year wait, the Class of 2020 participated in the commencement COVID-19 tried to take away.

This year will be the first time in the COVID-era when MUHS Graduation will be held unmasked, indoors without any COVID precautions. Apparently, the administration sees this as the right thing to do despite Vermont having one of the highest rates of infec … (read more)

PAYPAL CEO DAN Schulman, a 1980 graduate of Middlebury College, will deliver the commencement address at his alma mater’s graduation ceremony on May 29. That ceremony is for the Class of 2022; two days later Middlebury will host an in-person ceremony for … (read more)

BRANDON — On a sunny, beautiful day that saw 76 Otter Valley Union High School seniors graduate on a well-spaced Markowski Field, in observance of loosened pandemic guidelines, Principal Jim Avery said afterward that the event was a “brand new way to hold … (read more)

BRISTOL — “It is what it is” has grown into a lazy catch phrase used to describe a crummy situation over which one has little or no control.Except when it’s used by members of the Mount Abraham Union High School Class of 2021, who turned “it is what it is … (read more)

VERGENNES — A little before 8 p.m. on Friday, June 11, the 103 graduates of the Vergennes Union High School Class of 2021 took two symbolic actions.After the speeches and songs and diploma walks came Principal Stephanie Taylor’s instruction for the senior … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — It’s hard to think of anything more emblematic of the creativity and resilience of Middlebury Union High School’s response to COVID-19 than the lustrous glassy sounds of xylophones, vibraphones, marimbas and piano accompanying the Class of 20 … (read more)

ADDISON COUNTY — After enduring nearly 15 months of COVID-19 restrictions, from masks and social distancing to remote and hybrid classes, local high schools are on the verge of having an almost “normal” graduation season.According to new guidelines releas … (read more)

I personally want to say thank you to the administration and faculty for everything they did for the graduation on Saturday, June 6. They were so very organized, they all cheered on the graduates as you passed them by, which made them feel special, as the … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — Four fruitful years at Middlebury Union High School this past Saturday came down to one last meander down the horseshoe driveway fronting a building that had become home away from home for the more than 127 members of the class of 2020. It wa … (read more)

BRANDON — It’s amazing what we can get used to.  For decades each June, graduating seniors and their families, teachers and school officials packed Otter Valley’s gymnasium for the area’s biggest coming-of-age event of the year, high school graduation. It … (read more)

VERGENNES — It wasn’t a typical graduation evening for the Vergennes Union High School Class of 2020.  But then what has been typical over the past four months for the class’ 68 seniors, months filled with distance learning and isolation and uncertainty? … (read more)

Like all, we wish to congratulate the seniors at the area high schools — Middlebury, Mount Abraham, Vergennes, Otter Valley, Proctor and West Rutland. In the past four years they have delighted packed auditoriums with jazz, orchestral and theatrical perfo … (read more)