Friday, June 8, 2012 the 235 graduates of Huijia Private School donned black gowns with red and purple lining. The school auditorium was draped on both left and right sides of the stage with big banners of each graduate’s face. The banners of all graduates smiled down at the audience.
The Huijia Graduation Ceremony was very professional. Students acted as doormen, dressed in suits speaking into ear phones, helping to organize the event. A camera crane captured the event live, while two big screens on both sides of the stage and the screen center-stage captured the speeches and close-ups of fellow graduates. Students helped give out diplomas on stage dressed in white dresses looking like professionals on television.
Graduate Hao Hao, Yan gave the graduating class speech. She reminisced the memories fellow graduates shared, and expressed her sadness leaving high school. Although embracing a new future, all her classmates and friends will be leaving for America, Canada, or England.
Yan has been accepted to the University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Santa Barbara, Pennsylvania State University, Fordham University, and the University of Miami.
Chinese American Zhi Mai, Tian who is the Head of the IB (International Baccalaureate) Department at Huijia congratulated the graduates on their successful acceptance to major universities and urged graduates to “try hard” in life.
Graduates gifted the audience with a performance of Scarborough Fair in white dresses. The Class gave the school a framed plaque with the names of all graduates carved in golden letters. A globe was also given to the school by graduates. The globe symbolized the places the graduates would be going to in the future, from Asia to North America to Europe.
Check out more photos from the special day here.
The future globe-trotting graduates, a tenth of which come from countries such as Thailand, the United States, and Canada, will be embracing their new lives at universities like Washington University St. Louis, University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne, University of California, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Virginia, Wake Forest University, College of William and Mary, New York University, Emory University, Michigan State University, and University of Washington among others.