Shine Bright: Celebrating Our Grad Team!
Every year, Visions strives to put on a better graduation ceremony than the year before and pulling off two ceremonies in one day is no small feat. It takes months of work to put our ceremonies on and our graduation planning team starts planning the next graduation even before the first graduation starts!
Making Graduation 2024 Happen
On June 25, Visions In Education’s Grad Team gathered to reflect and take time to celebrate our successful 2024 graduation ceremonies. Words were shared to express deep gratitude for the work done by our Grad Team and additional staff who took the time to set up, break down, and work on our ceremonies. This work included new safety measures, running to the store to get extra water for students mid-ceremony, and the creation of a wellness room to help students who needed a quiet place to process their feelings.
“We had about 30 graduates with various challenges that needed additional support,” said Ron Thomas, Associate Director of Equity & Student Engagement. “Our social work services team brought [the wellness room] idea as a resource for students.”
“Every single one of you played a big part in making our grad checkouts and commencement ceremonies successful,” Matthew Patterson, Director of Student Services, said to a room of Grad Teamers at our celebration. “Especially our counselors, who handed out bobby pins to grads in need and helped prepare them for their big moment away from the stage.”
“The graduation ceremony for the Class of 2024 was filled with spectacular performances and motivational speeches,” said Ron. “Re-living the day watching from home was only possible thanks to our Marketing & Communication team who had the video and photos up within the week. Kudos to the team.”
During this time, the team took a moment to recognize Angelica Gallardo, newly minted Business Analyst, for her masterful execution of supporting and planning our commencements and Grad Checkouts for over 1,300 graduates, our largest graduating class in Visions’ history. Angelica has supported the graduation ceremony for more than seven years and knows the ins and outs of graduation day better than anyone.
“Angelica lives for these moments. With more than 250+ additional students participating in this year’s graduation from the previous, we could not have done it without [her].” Matt said. “The work we do is for the students, extending hours, going to every community, we do this because the students smile at the end of the day.”
Thank you Grad Team, for another successful graduation season. Read more about the Class of 2024 Graduation here.
View photos from our Grad Team Celebration below.
Not pictured but greatly appreciated: Angelica G., Adam S., Mariah EC., and Mindi R.
Building 1% Better
“I would like to give props to Richard E. and Adam S. for their mid-day Costco run to help get water bottles for our graduates the day of commencement ceremonies.”
“Thank you Betty B. for packing boxes and additional support the day before.”
“Shoutout to the team outside! On a hot day like June 5th, we still worked to get through the day successfully.”
“Kudos to Jessica L. and the SPED team for making sure that students who needed accommodations were supported. They were making sure that students got the experience they deserved.”
“Having the extra leadership on hand such as Uriel G. helped to prevent the movement of other staff. Uriel and others helped situations as they arose. Thank you.”
“Props to Betty for the prep work in every movement – knowing where everyone is located, without my binder [that Betty helped prepare] I would have been worse off. I appreciate the thought process behind each action.”
“Thank you to all of our Board Members for creating lasting commencement memories alongside the Visions team.”
“We appreciate Matthew P. for his level head in stressful situations. We also appreciate Mindi R. for her help in quarterbacking the teachers.”
Notable Class of 2024 Graduation Memories
The Class of 2024 was the largest graduating class yet. Congratulations to over 1,300 graduates.
A student was unable to purchase their cap and gown due to monetary issues; Visions staff waived the fees for the students to complete their last steps with Visions and walk on June 5th.
30+ students took advantage of the newly introduced wellness room available at graduation.
An unexpected tale (tail): the story of a small puppy that almost graduated (carried across the stage) from Visions.
