It was a bittersweet moment for the class of 2024 Castaic High School Cayotes as they celebrated one final victory together: completing their high school journeys.
Three hundred and thirty graduates had the privilege of walking across the stage during the Castaic High School Class of 2024 Graduation Ceremony at the College of the Canyons Cougar Stadium on Monday evening.
Family members, loved ones and friends cheered on their fellow graduates as they celebrated a moment they had anticipated for four years with large banners, posters, and photographs.
In the group of 330 graduates stood 83 honors scholars, 60 Clear Pathway achievers, 56 National Honors Society members, 51 California Scholarship Federation members, 27 AP Scholar Award recipients, among many other recognized students in a variety of extracurriculars including athletics.
Opening the ceremony was Castaic High School Principal Vince Ferry, and he gave a moment for students to honor their parents, family members and teachers who supported the graduates through their trials and tribulations during their high school careers.
“Tonight we graduate the best of the best,” Ferry said.
Commencement address speaker Katherine McGaffee gave a poetic and reminiscent speech titled “The Painter,” in which she recalled memories that the students all shared throughout their years at the school.
“A little orange here, a little gray there. It’s the colors we see walking onto campus for the first time. It’s a sense of deja vu over our lives … It made me look at life as if it was a piece of art. As if school was like a piece of art, as if our friends are like art. And we all have our own paintbrush,” she said. “It all started with painting our senior parking spots this year. We painted our schedules, what classes you were going to take, what sports and clubs you’re going to be a part of. Here we learned what the value of work means.”
She added: “I dare you to look around because this may be the last time you see these people. And while that’s sad and all the memories we have painted together, the pictures (will) always be in our minds and our phones. Those won’t ever go away. So as we stand together today and look into the unknown college life or careers, families or traveling, I plead with you all, never get rid of your paint brush, the brush you have used to paint your life. The brush that is here with all of us today, hold on to it. And the magical thing about paint is it allows you to leave a mark somewhere, allows you to leave a piece of art showing where you have been and what you have done.”
During the ceremony ASB President Jayden Long passed along the “Light of the Pack” to Class of 2025 ASB President Aubrie Riley, in a tradition that serves as a farewell from the graduating class on to the next upcoming seniors to continue the legacy.
“Although we’re growing and we’re leaving the pack, we’re taking something greater as we’re looking back, a mountain of stories embedded in us all and people we know will answer our Coyote call,” said Isabel Calabrin-Tribble as she recited her poem titled, “Sunset on the Hills.” “We’ve seen history created right before our own eyes. But tomorrow we’re creators, we’re the next who will rise, to your right a future president, to your left the new van Gogh, the people of our future sit right here as we let go.”
She concluded: “Our story is just beginning our futures waiting to be led. As we walk across the stage tonight, the future in our hands, our dreams become reality, our potential now expands … We came here as students not knowing what the future held, but tonight we leave a family. We leave a pack. We have excelled.”
The 2024 graduates ended the ceremony with the traditional cap toss in celebration of the completion of their high school journeys.
Gallery below: Photos by Katherine Quezada/The Signal
