Schools

Northwest Class of 2001 Graduation Ceremony Was Hot Ticket

Graduates and speakers, including Gov. Jay Nixon, baked in the noonday sun.

It can't be said that the Northwest School District sent its Class of 2011 into the world half baked.

With the temperature reaching 90 degrees at noon on the Northwest High School football field Saturday, the 440 graduating seniors, and their families and friends, were fully baked. The few areas of shade were coveted and  many of those in the audience retreated to the high school where the ceremony was carried on a video feed.

Gov. Jay Nixon gave the commencement address, urging students to continue to learn after they leave high school.

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"As you step into the second decade of the 21st Century, the future that you, the class of 2011, will be creating from this moment on will be very different from the world your parents and grandparents grew up in," Nixon said. "We live in a world where the boundaries of time, distance and culture are collapsing at the touch of a finger.

"Use all you have learned at Northwest – inside and outside the classroom – to continue to challenge yourself to achieve," Nixon said. "Use it to build a strong family, a vibrant community and a prosperous state. Use your education to build a brighter future for our nation and our world. Working together, our best days are ahead."

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Brad Snell, Northwest High School principal, opened the graduation ceremony, introducing Symone Plake, executive president of the student council, Mary Myers, salutatorian, and Jesse Doggendorf, valedictorian, all of whom made briefs remarks to the assembled graduates and their friends and family.

Superintendent Paul Ziegler the governor, whose speech was followed by a performance by the Northwest High School A Cappella Choir.

And then it was onto the reading of the graduates names as they stepped to the podium to accept their diplomas and congratulations from Ziegler and Nixon.

The well-manicured football field provided an iconic setting for the graduation ceremony. A slight breeze offset the high temperature and humidity somewhat, but reminiscent of a comment famously made by Casey Stengel about the newly built Busch Stadium in 1964: "It sure holds the heat well."


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