Collège Lorette Collegiate sends off 99 grads

Ninety-nine students from Collège Lorette Collegiate graduated in the hot and packed hall of Transcona Country Club on June 26.

Many people stood along the walls during the ceremony. People used the graduation program pamphlets as makeshift fans in the sauna-like temperature environment.

Principal Kathryn Murison reminded students how graduation is just the beginning.

“Graduation is definitely not the finish line. It’s the launch pad,” said Murison.

Valedictorians Kiana McDonald, from the French immersion program, and Ella Wedensky, from the English program, spoke about their experiences in high school which began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

McDonald said among the other things the graduates learned was sneaking into a few photography field trips.

McDonald received the Governor General’s Academic Medal for having a 96.93 percent average in Grade 11 and 12.

For Wedensky, advice to live in the moment, chase fear, and acknowledging the bittersweet feeling of graduating.

“There’s also that creeping feeling of real life starting soon,” said Wedensky.

Several Indigenous graduates wore a white stole to mark their culture.