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Thursday, May 31, 2012 By Dominic Colosimo
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Juan Diego’s 11th annual commencement ceremony took place on Saturday, May 25. This ceremony is meant to honor the senior class by highlighting their accomplishments.
187 students were in the graduating class, and over 98% of them will attend college next year. This includes some in-state and out-of-state colleges as well as some in Japan.
Juan Diego has a tradition of starting the graduation ceremony in the center circle rose garden. All of the graduates offer a final prayer as they place a rose next to the statues of St. Juan Diego and the Blessed Mary. These rose petals will be combined, dried and made into a candle that will burn at the ten-year reunion of the class of 2012. Every graduating class will have a candle like this at their reunion.
This was one of the smartest academic classes Juan Diego has ever seen. Eleven students earned the title of National Merit Scholar. Four of these students earned even higher honors and were among the top 7,500 students in the country academically. This class also earned more than seven million dollars in scholarship money.
The special awards given out at commencement are also an annual tradition. Micaela Mannix won the St. Cecilia Award for performance in the fine arts. Brock Garn won the St. Sebastian award for athletics. Christine Petrone, theology teacher at JD, was given the St. Michael the Archangel award for service. Tammara Kuramoto, longtime math teacher at JD, was given the Spiritus Donorum award in honor of the school motto, which means "in the spirit of giving."
This was a unique year because four students were chosen for the honor of Valedictorian. These include Courtney May, Adrian Shimpi, Megan Stephanz and Katherine McIntyre. Stephanz and McIntyre were chosen to speak on behalf of the other two and the senior class. Shimpi also received the St. Thomas Aquinas award while May received the St. Theresa of Avila award.
JD has never split up the awards like this before but it was necessary given how close all of these students were academically.
Bishop John Wester of the Diocese of Salt Lake City and Sister Catherine Camphus, superintendent of Catholic schools, presided over the ceremony. Principal Dr. Galey Colosimo and Vice Principal John Colosimo led the ceremony and handed out the awards.
“This was a successful graduation and we hope to have many more amazing classes like this one come through Juan Diego,” said Dr. Colosimo.
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