Graduation Preliminaries

In many ways this year's graduation was a microcosm of the 2010-11 school year. We had a host of logistical difficulties but the main result was fantastic. Before the ceremony we prayed for no rain and that things would go smoothly. Instead, we got bucket-loads of rain, an island-wide power outage that lasted from about 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the ceremony to about 10 minutes after the ceremony concluded, and a key speaker was held up and arrived late. At least, this year the graduation caps and gowns arrived in the mail on time. Nevertheless, we had our donated canopies which kept the rain off of us, our generator cranked up and kept the sound system and everything else running smoothly and the lieutenant governor arrived just as we were ready to start. According to everyone I talked to the graduation ceremony was a great success, people were blessed and the graduates were honored. Just as, though we had some great financial and personnel difficulties this year, we saw amazing growth in our students and that is what really counts. Here are a few pictures of the events as we got ready for the graduation ceremony. Next post will be pictures of the actual ceremony.

Joyce tries on cap and gown before we head to school for the ceremony and then we get a picture together in our regalia.

The Pacific Daily News photographer snaps a picture of Joyce before the ceremony. The picture is a little dark because the power was out throughout the building.