{"id":15612,"date":"2019-06-01T23:41:26","date_gmt":"2019-06-02T05:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=979710"},"modified":"2019-06-02T08:16:31","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T14:16:31","slug":"glenwood-springs-high-schools-largest-graduating-class-in-school-history-celebrates-with-love-laughter-and-biggie-smalls-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/glenwood-springs-high-schools-largest-graduating-class-in-school-history-celebrates-with-love-laughter-and-biggie-smalls-advice\/","title":{"rendered":"Glenwood Springs High School\u2019s largest graduating class in school history celebrates with love, laughter and Biggie Smalls advice"},"content":{"rendered":"
Glenwood Springs High School class of 2019 posses for the class photo as they wait to walk for the commencement ceremony Saturday morning. Glenwood celebrated a hisotric moment with 220 graduates, the most in school history.<\/strong>
GlenwoodGraduation-gpi-060219-1<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Glenwood Springs High School celebrated its largest graduating class in school history Saturday as it awarded 220 diplomas.<\/p>\n

Wearing red and white cap and gowns, the graduates received a standing ovation from family and friends in the packed bleachers as they filed onto the school\u2019s football field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you were young you were told not to trust strangers. Now that you are grown you don\u2019t have to view the stranger as a threat. The stranger is now an opportunity,\u201d Glenwood Springs High School Social Studies Teacher Garrett Peters said as he fought back tears during his commencement address to students. \u201cWe must stop looking upon the different with hate and fear and start seeing it with eyes of intrigue and possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters, who recited the beginning portion of his speech in Spanish, was selected specifically by the class of 2019 to deliver the commencement address.<\/p>\n

Senior Class President Sierra McKinney said that in order to prepare for her farewell statements to classmates, she watched videos of Oprah Winfrey\u2019s own commencement speeches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched her speech and it inspired me to do something special, something generous \u2013 something to channel my inner Oprah. So would every graduate please look under your seats,\u201d McKinney explained as graduates began wondering what exactly was about to happen. \u201cThere you will find nothing. This best represents your inevitable future for the next four years. You will have no money, no free time and no happiness,\u201d McKinney said to laughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, I need to take a positive spin on things. The Notorious B.I.G. once said \u2018Mo money mo problems,\u2019\u201d McKinney said referencing one of the late American Rapper\u2019s hit songs from his album \u201cLife After Death.\u201d<\/p>\n

From tears of joy to tears of laughter, Glenwood Springs High School\u2019s commencement ceremony showcased optimism, realism, plenty of humor and was a particularly proud moment for Valedictorian Isabelle Lorah.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope you are all so proud of your work over the last four years,\u201d Lorah said as she looked at her classmates from the podium. \u201cWhether you worked hard to learn English as a second language, spent your nights helping younger siblings or had to treat the leukemia you were diagnosed with in elementary school, you fought your battles and now you\u2019re here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenwood Springs High School class of 2019 posses for the class photo as they wait to walk for the commencement ceremony Saturday morning. Glenwood celebrated a hisotric moment with 220 graduates, the most in school history.GlenwoodGraduation-gpi-060219-1 Glenwood Springs High School celebrated its largest graduating class in school history Saturday as it awarded 220 diplomas. Wearing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 04:36:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15614,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15612\/revisions\/15614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}