Friday night Greenwood High School held its Graduation in the H.B. Stewart Arena
In an almost complete unison, thousands of phones rang that same heart racing inducing ringtone “TORNADO WARNING”. As the voices grew louder in the Arena, Principal Dr. Joshua Ray stepped up to the mic and said “We are going to take your children inside the school for their safety. Once we have escorted them out you are able to go to the Tornado Shelter.” It was beginning to be a fitting send-off for the last group of students that had their High School lives met with uncertainty due to Covid. Now, Graduation was possibly uncertain.
The parents did not move, see real estate was key at Graduation. Usually the ceremony is held on the Football field and it has more than enough capacity for the over 5,000+ that arrive. The H.B. Stewart Arena holds 2,200, no one was giving up seats. Up until 2020, if graduation was held in the Arena, every single seat would be filled. On Friday night, every seat could have still been filled, but now people are cautious and left seats open between groups.
Before the students arrived back in, Dr. Ray once again came back to microphone and said “Let’s have a Graduation!” The ceremony started nearly on time even with the Tornado delay. Senior class President Rylie Holland gave the Welcome speech. Longtime Greenwood Educator Jo Ella Skaggs gave an entertaining address to the students and to their crowd many of whom she had taught in here 30 year career at Greenwood. This was also Ms. Skaggs’ last year at Greenwood. Senior Madelyn Wilkinson gave the Class Address.
Dr. Ray returned to talk about the educational accomplishments of the class. The 2023 class had 252 Graduates, while smaller than the last few classes there were 38 Distinguished Graduates with a 4.0 and above GPA. 83 Honors Diplomas. 19 Honor Graduates. Of the 252 Graduates there were 139 students that went K-12 at Greenwood, the largest amount so far. 3 students were National Merit Finalists (David Ambriz, Lily Williams, and Lucas Wittig). 52% of the class received scholarships, with $8.44 million offered and $5.86 Million accepted. 137 Students received the Arkansas Challenge Scholarship that is funded by the Arkansas Lottery.
Congratulations to the Graduating Class of 2023!
