The Russell County High School Class of 2022 will hold its commencement exercises tonight, Friday, May 27, at 7 p.m. in the RCHS gymnasium.
Each senior who is participating in the graduation ceremony will be given eight tickets for guests to attend. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
The Class of 2022 is made up of just under 200 students, with 168 walking in the graduation. Sixteen of the seniors achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA.
There will also be a chair reserved in the memory of Isaiah Rexroat, a Class of 2022 student who passed away in 2020.
The commencement speaker will be Senior Class President Sophie Shearer.
Principal Shanna Tarter will present this year’s graduating class, and Morgan Loy will give closing remarks.
Shearer said that she will focus on the Class of 2022’s past, and Loy will focus on its future during their speeches.
“I describe this class as resilient in my speech, and that’s what I like to think of us as,” Shearer said. “We don’t want COVID to be the story anymore. It did feel like a factor, but this year was a lot better. I think we’ve set a high standard for the rest of the classes from here.”
Assistant principal Stacy Anderson, who has helped organize this year’s commencement ceremony, described the seniors as “a really good class” and said the school wants to make sure and “salute” this group of seniors in the best way possible.
“The thing with this class is they’ve overcome a lot,” Anderson said. “Their freshmen years were their last full year of being in the school. They’ve really taken it upon themselves to be a positive light, and they’re excited to do anything and everything. They’ve really stepped up, with community service, doing things for local businesses, and their school spirit has been great.
“They’ve been such great leaders this year and are a really tight-knit group,” she added. “We are really proud of them.”
Shearer added that the community and school have both been supportive of the Class of 2022 and is happy with how much closer she and her classmates have gotten throughout their time at RCHS.
“Honestly, I feel like we’ve gotten even closer, personally,” Shearer said. “We came right back after these COVID years, we were in-person, and for the most part, we were back all together. We were blessed to have the year we had. Our friends who graduated the past two years haven’t been as fortunate, so I’m glad we got this opportunity to build these friendships. It’s been a lot of fun.”
The ceremony will be live broadcast on the Russell County High School Facebook page.
The County Line’s Education page is sponsored by Campbellsville University.
