Students traversed a ‘long and winding road’ towards graduation
Jun 13, 2024
Students turned their tassels from left to right to mark their graduation from Wareham Cooperative Alternative High School on Wednesday, June 12. From left to right: Jason Schuster, Ava Roomey, Layla Maxim, Cameron Manchester, Jasmine Hackett, Justin Chaves and Sienna Cavallo. Photos by Nick Mossman.
Some graduates decorated their caps ahead of the ceremony.
Sienna Cavallo tells the audience about the many bumps along the way towards graduation.
Families showed up ready to celebrate as their loved ones walked across the graduation stage.
Graduation marked the end of a “long and winding road,” according to Wareham Cooperative Alternative High School student Layla Maxim.
Maxim and nine other graduates marked the end of their journeys on the road towards a high school diploma on Wednesday, June 12.
Graduates were part of Wareham’s Pathways to Academic Student Success program, where students take classes at night to receive their full high school diploma. The program has the same expectations as Wareham High school, according to the high school website.
During the ceremony, two students, including Maxim, shared the stories of their “long and winding roads” to graduation.
Nichole Wade, a teacher at Wareham Cooperative Alternative High School, told Maxim’s story to the audience.
Maxim was supposed to get her diploma last September. Instead, her plan was interrupted when her son was born two months prematurely, putting her path towards a diploma on hold.
Night school let Maxim work during the day, saving money for her son and their future, she wrote.
Once her son came home a few months later, Maxim returned.
“Balancing my responsibilities as a mother and a student was challenging,” Maxim wrote. “But I was determined.”
Graduating student Sienna Cavallo said that her high school experience was unconventional from the start.
This started with the COVID-19 pandemic, Cavallo said.
“Instead of walking through the doors of the high school to start the next big chapter of my life, all I had to do was roll over and hit ‘join Zoom,’” she said.
Cavallo said that everyone in the audience could probably agree that there are many bumps along the way during high school.
“My bump was nine months long and now calls me ‘mama,’” she said.
Cavallo said that when she first found out that she was pregnant during her junior year, she did not expect to graduate.
The Pathways to Academic Student Success program allowed Cavallo to finish high school, she said.
And according to Cavallo, the program was a “perfect fit.”
Cavallo said that thanks to the program, she intends to further her education and show her son that “despite what life throws at you, nothing is impossible.”
“It has truly been a long and winding road, but every step has been worth it,” Maxim wrote.
