FAIR OAKS, CA (MPG) – For the first time since 2019, Bella Vista High School held an in-person graduation ceremony on Thursday, June 2 at the school’s football stadium.

The ceremony was held Thursday morning bright and early at 8 a.m. The graduation began with the Bella Vista band playing a tune. Students in the Class of 2022 then began to take the field wearing their black cap and gowns to traditional graduation music played by the Bella Vista band.

Bella Vista Student Body President Kathleen Huynh officially opened the ceremony with a speech.

“High school has been a wild ride, but I believe it taught us all many things,” Huynh said. “To encourage each other, be kind to all, how to overcome a failure and how to enjoy life in the moment. I can certainly say high school felt like the blink of an eye, but this experience was like no other.

“It’s amazing to think that we came on to this campus as nervous freshman and now we are leaving as proud seniors. But remember, life is just beginning. We have so much ahead of us to look forward to and to experience.”

Huynh congratulated the graduates who planned to attend four-year universities, community college, vocational school or were going straight into the workforce for becoming a productive member of society. Huynh then gave a special thank you to her fellow graduates who will be enlisting in the military.

“We then want to thank our teachers who put up with tardies, and attitudes and late work,” Huynh said with a smile.

Huynh closed her speech with a quote from actress Jodie Foster. A female graduate then took the stage and sang “Chasing Pavements” by Adele. The next speaker was Senior Class Vice President Nohemi Vela Guevara.

“I told myself I would not be nervous, but I feel a little nervous right now,” Guevara said with a chuckle. “We had a high school experience very out of the ordinary. We began with a freshman year that united us on the Bella Vista campus. Abruptly, our sophomore year was cut short due to COVID-19. Our junior year was spent at home online. And finally, we came back for senior year but with most of us feeling rusty socially, mentally and physically.

“We quite literally had a high school experience like no other,” Guevara continued. “We spent a year and a half in online school where phrases such as, ‘Can you hear me?’ and ‘Let me share my screen,” became the norm along with frantically checking to make sure we were muted coming into a zoom room. And not to forget that we lived through various historical events such as the Black Lives Matter movement, the Stop Asian Hate movement and numerous crazy wildfires. We saw the world evolve and together we pushed for change, for our voices to be heard.”

Bella Vista Principal Virgil Kitchen made a speech and invited the select students with outstanding grade point averages to take the stage for recognition. Graduates then individually took the stage and heard their names called for their friends and family in attendance to cheer on.

The ceremony concluded as graduates moved their tassels from the right to left side and tossed their caps into the air. Congratulations to the Class of 2022!

A full stream of the graduation can be found on the Orangevale Live YouTube page.