Wawasee High School bid farewell to its graduating class of 2025 at a commencement ceremony Sunday, June 8. Adeline Barton, center, accepts her diploma from Assistant Principal John Snyder and Chloe Bartels accepts hers from Principal Geoff Walmer.

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By Lilli Dwyer
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — Wawasee High School seniors entered the gymnasium one last time as they participated in their commencement ceremony Sunday, June 8. Guests packed the Hardwood Teepee to watch the class of 2025 take the walk across the stage. The 56th graduating class saw 184 seniors receive their diplomas.

Salutatorian Lucy Wilkinson addressed her fellow students and their families, admitting she’d had difficulty knowing how to sum up four years of change and growth in one speech. As a freshman, she had been concerned with finding her purpose, and had found it through leading in student council, sports and cadet teaching.

“In case no one has told you, I’m so proud of you and all that you have achieved” she said to her classmates. “You’ve all put in the hard work and perseverance to get to this moment. I love you all more than you know, more than I’ve shown, and it’s scary that we’re all going out separate ways … I know there will be little moments in life that remind me of each of you.”

Her advice for her fellow seniors included “you cannot succeed without failing” and “always stand up for and speak the truth, even when it is not easy or unpopular.”

Valedictorian Hannah Likens took the stage next. In her address, she shared a quote, “enjoy being in the process of becoming.” High school students, she said, are often looking forward to the future and may miss the small but vital moments in their lives.

“These memories appear to have passed us by without notice because we were so preoccupied with future plans,” she said of the high school experience.

“Do not rush to wish those days away in favor of something you believe would be better,” she urged her classmates. “The future will bring us our challenges and pleasures, but don’t let them interfere with the opportunity to make priceless memories with the people you care about currently.”

As student body president, Wilkinson was asked to give another address and decided to involve fellow student council members, Zaylee Guy and Dakota Nguyen because, she said, “leadership is not just about one person.”

Guy thanked faculty members, as well as parents, and told her classmates, “whatever you do after high school, be passionate and never stop learning. … Once we receive our diplomas and think that we are done, remember that there is always something to be learned.”

Nguyen said he prefers to be behind the scenes, but had found himself stepping into leaderships roles over the past four years at WHS.

“Working with the student council, I realized your title doesn’t make you a leader, but your actions that do. Weather it’s speaking up in front of a room or offering quiet advice to your peers. That’s what people notice, when you take initiative and cause them to follow you as a leader,” he stated.

In his address, Principal Geoff Walmer thanked all Wawasee Community Schools staff for their work. He stated WHS staff members had been asked to describe an influential teacher or coach that had impacted their own lives when they were younger.

The words that came up the most were “‘love,’ ‘positive,’ ‘never gave up,’ and ‘pushed me,'” said Walmer. He told the story of a basketball coach in his own life who embodied these words.

“To be transparent, I would not say he was a difference maker in my life back then,” Walmer recalled. However, he later reconnected with this man when Walmer became the principal of WHS six years ago and faced the challenges of working in education administration. “He was man of character, who was genuine, who always put others first. … He was a man who could tell a kid they were being suspended from school but the kid wanted to give him a hug as they left the office, because they knew that he cared.”

As a principal, “I knew the person I wanted, and the person I needed, was my former high school basketball coach and previous colleague, Mr. John Snyder,” Walmer declared. He encouraged students to find their own John Snyder, but first to become a John Snyder for others.

After his speech, Walmer welcomed Assistant Principal John Snyder to the stage to give the farewell address, his final one as he will be retiring after 37 years in public education.

In his speech, Snyder said WHS was “hard to walk away from, but everything has its season.”

Snyder noted that graduation speeches often frame graduation as “the end of one chapter and the start of another.” However, he wanted to emphasize that life is a story, made up of many chapters, and can be “rewritten” any time.

“You never have to be a victim of circumstance or be held captive by your past,” he told the seniors, a piece of advice he had offered many times over his years in education. “You can’t change the past, but you all have the ability to author the direction of your future, even if it comes later in your life.”

At one point, Snyder was unhappy with the direction of his life and made the decision to go into education. “The determination to change that story has changed my life, my family’s life, and I hope it has changed the lives of those around me,” he said.

Before concluding, Snyder thanked the Wawasee community and his wife for being supportive of him.

As part of the ceremony, WHS’ choir members gave their rendition of the national anthem and “Wawasee High School Hymn,” and an invocation was given by Addison Beasley.

Once each senior has walked across the stage, they filed from the gym to the bright, sunny day outside and tossed their caps in the air, marking the end of their high school careers.