Meadows Valley School Graduation Ceremony 2024
High School Graduates of 2024 received their diplomas at MVS on May 25, 2024. The staff preceded the seniors entering the gym while Jeff Parnett played “Pomp and Circumstance” eloquently on the piano.
Salutatorian Alexis May gave a warm welcome to everyone and encouraged her classmates to go into adulthood with open minds and a sense of humor. She also gave thank you’s to parents, teachers and her fellow students. Alexis then introduced the guest speaker, Josh Carr, saying he has been delivering packages to the New Meadows area for years and is a Volunteer Firefighter and City Councilman. Most of all, he’s been a positive role model for the senior class and the community.
Josh began his speech by proudly saying that his grandparents, father and two sisters are all graduates from Meadows Valley. He thanked the senior class for asking a meager UPS driver to speak at their graduation.
Mr. Carr told about having a 17-year career as a truck driver and the culture shock that it was having to go places like Queens, Detroit and Chicago. He’s glad he made it back here to raise his three boys. He imparted that there’s nothing wrong with coming home, but didn’t want the graduates to settle on never leaving. Life will be frustrating and rewarding. His greatest lessons have been to be kind, look to your community to be a neighbor and help at the local level. He encouraged them to be like lions, “stand in the face of fear and take a leap”. Life is about taking chances and never being afraid to fail. Success is not something that comes too cheap, shoot for the stars. Josh wished the students happiness and told them to seize the day.
Valedictorian Jordyn White was next. She started out saying she and her classmates now have to adult properly. She imparted the importance of following their own dreams. Despite the aspirations of others, follow your passions. Don’t be afraid to challenge normality, have courage to dream differently, and to forge new paths where none had existed before. Don’t measure success by the standards of others. Jordyn then thanked teachers, staff, parents and congratulated her class.
A touching slide show of each graduate growing up had tears flowing in the crowd. The seniors continued the sentimentality by handing out flowers to important people in their lives.
Each student received $1750 from the Gear Up Idaho Scholarship. Joseph Padgett then received around 14 scholarships totaling over $25,000. Joseph plans to go to LCSC to study diesel mechanics. The Fosdick Scholarship not only gave $4000 to Joseph but also gave $4000 to last year’s graduate Leylani Vargas Mendez who has finished her first year at the University of Idaho.
Diplomas were handed out and the graduates left the stage enjoying the song “Danger Zone”. Congratulations Graduates of 2024!!!
