The Grade 12 students at Port Coquitlam’s Hope Lutheran Christian school are busy preparing for grad. There are funds to be raised through operating the school’s concession stand, selling pizza coupons, collecting recyclable bottles and doing odd jobs like gardening and fence painting for paying customers.
There’s a menu to planned for the blowout banquet to be held June 28 at Meadow Gardens golf club in Pitt Meadows.
And there’s the matter of choosing a valedictorian.
It won’t be easy — half the class has applied for the honour.
Mind you, the grad class is comprised of only four students.
Taylor Audette, Daniel Bradley, Gary Huang and Dana Yang are the first class to graduate from the longtime PoCo private school’s new middle and high school campus in Pitt Meadows. They’re also the school’s smallest graduating class.
Jessica Gabeli, a French teacher at Hope Lutheran and the staff sponsor for grad, says it’s special to work with such a small group of senior students.
“You get to build something right from the start," she said. "It’s awesome to see how much they’ve grown.”
The students, who call themselves the Wolfpack, say being part of such a small cohort doesn’t come without challenges.
“We’re mostly together,” says Bradley, who will be attending BCIT in the fall to study fixed-wing aviation.
“There’s nowhere to hide because you know each other too well,” says Huang, who’s going into kinesiology at Simon Fraser University.
“It’s like a second family,” says Yang, who’s headed to UBC.
“And like any family, we have our ups and downs,” adds Bradley.
So far, Bradley and Yang have put their names forward for valedictorian to craft the words that will define and conclude their high school lives and send them into the world.
“I love talking, if anybody will listen,” says Bradley.
Audette, who’s planning to take a year off to explore the world world, says he’s thinking about throwing his name into the hat as well.
Regardless of who gives the grad speech, each will have to assemble a portfolio of their resume, plans for the future, a budget to show they can be responsible with money and an account of volunteer hours they’ve worked. Their submissions will be reviewed by Gabeli and the school’s principal, Dan Matthew.
But all of the students have given some thought to the kind of advice they’d offer to their fellow grads.
“Just be who you are,” says Huang.
“Try your best at everything,” says Audette.
“Don’t try to be the best, just be better,” says Yang, “because that’s something that you can only determine by yourself.”
“Put in the work because it’s going to matter later,” says Bradley.
The grads have decided they won’t throw a lavish after-party. And they’ll carpool to the banquet rather than rent a limo.
“We just need to get there,” says Audette.
“At that point, you’re just throwing your money away,” Bradley adds. “We need to show we can be fiscally responsible.”
Instead, the money the students have raised will help pay for each of them to invite up to 10 family members and friends to their celebratory banquet, with enough left over as a bit of a seed fund for next year’s graduating class.
Still, without any girls in their graduating class, what about dates?
“Uh, we do know people outside of school,” Bradley says.
