{"id":46650,"date":"2021-05-24T02:28:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T08:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-high-school-graduates-emphasize-empathy-balance\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:32:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:32:54","slug":"mancos-high-school-graduates-emphasize-empathy-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-high-school-graduates-emphasize-empathy-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos High School graduates emphasize empathy, balance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mancos
Mancos High School\u2019s graduating class celebrates after Sunday\u2019s ceremony. (Anthony Nicotera\/ The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Friends and family of Mancos High School\u2019s 30-student graduation class converged on the campus football field for a sunny send-off Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The ceremony took place after a year in which the district\u2019s schools remained open and managed to get through the coronavirus pandemic relatively unscathed. The rural high school\u2019s student speakers imparted a message of open-mindedness and empathy to those in attendance.<\/p>\n

\"Family
Family and friends filled the bleachers at Mancos High School\u2019s football field for Sunday\u2019s ceremony. (Anthony Nicotera\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After the national anthem, a moment of silence was held for Callum Hays, the 17-year old Mancos student who died last summer.<\/p>\n

Mancos Secondary Schools Principal John Marchino started the ceremony by discussing the challenges students faced during the school year, as well as their accomplishments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got through this year and were able to weather his pandemic,\u201d Marchino said. \u201cAnd not just make it to the end, but thrive in the process. This class that sits before you has persevered and excelled while enduring the challenges imposed on all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Marchino, 15 seniors earned a total of 320 college credits while in high school, and 24 were accepted into a college or a university.<\/p>\n

The class of 2021 earned over $560,000 in scholarships.<\/p>\n

Four students will be joining the military.<\/p>\n

\"Of
Of the school\u2019s graduating class of 30, 24 students were accepted into a college or university. (Anthony Nicotera\/ The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cAlthough we\u2019re proud of your accomplishments in high school, we will be even more proud when you go out into this world and show empathy to your fellow persons and exhibit kindness to everyone all time,\u201d Marchino said.<\/p>\n

Science teacher Sensa Walcott spoke to graduates about the importance of teamwork and how her students have shaped her.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrowth is an intricate and beautiful and messy process, and as I sat down and thought about it, as much as I came into my classroom hoping to have a positive impact on you, I realized that each of you has also had an impact on me and who I\u2019ve become.\u201d Walcott said. \u201cLife is truly a team sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mancos
Mancos science teacher Sensa Walcott emphasized the importance of team work in her speech Sunday. (Anthony Nicotera\/ The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Empathy turned out to be a key theme in Sunday\u2019s proceedings.<\/p>\n

Class salutatorian Kylie Guiles was the first student to speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cMancos is the place we call home. It is where our roots were planted,\u201d Guiles said. \u201cThis town will always be home, but there is more to the world than what is here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She encouraged her fellow graduates to be open-minded and to listen to those with different ways of looking at the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we go through life, I hope we will gain an understanding of other world views,\u201d Guiles said. \u201cWhile we may not agree, we can learn to respect them. It is up to us to make the courageous choice to be kind. Find the kindness within, and radiate that kindness to those around you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Class valedictorian Grace Manning was next up to the podium.<\/p>\n

Manning will be attending Colorado College in the fall. She intends to study molecular biology and become an epidemiologist.<\/p>\n

She started off by thanking teachers and staff for their efforts over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have somehow managed to turn us graduates into a respectable crowd of young adults,\u201d Manning said.<\/p>\n

Manning then discussed the sacrifices she made in her efforts to excel and become valedictorian. She devoted nearly all of her time to academics, athletics and work.<\/p>\n

Manning became a full-time student at Fort Lewis College during her senior year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSimply put, I didn\u2019t want to just achieve,\u201d Manning said. \u201cI wanted to overachieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she was fulfilled briefly after learning that she would be class valedictorian, she began to reflect on the importance of relationships in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked back at my years in high school, and I realized something. I had sacrificed time with family and friends in the pursuit of success. And now that I had succeeded, I was saddened at the lost time with my favorite people. It isn\u2019t that my family wasn\u2019t a priority, I just forgot that they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

She emphasized that graduates will need to find balance in their day-to-day lives, a lesson she was glad to learn early.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how busy your life gets, try your best to stay connected with the people you care about. Because I personally believe that success is futile when you have nobody to celebrate it with,\u201d sh said.<\/p>\n

\"Class
Class valedictorian Grace Manning speaks to fellow graduates about balancing goals and relationships. (Anthony Nicotera\/ The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Superintendent Brian Hanson told The Journal <\/em> after the ceremony that it felt like it was the right time to end his time with the district to spend time with family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am ready to move on,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cIt\u2019s been 35 years. Loved every minute of it. It\u2019s been an honor and a privilege to be superintendent here for 13 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Superintendent Brian Hanson oversees final graduation ceremony before retirement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,28,83,37,392,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-mancos-school-district-re-6","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86968,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46650\/revisions\/86968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46650"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}