It’s possible that Learning Post Academy’s 2026 graduating class represents the aftermath of a sea change for middle and high school education.
Five years after the first fall of the COVID-19 pandemic, the students initially driven to online instruction by necessity would’ve been in middle school — and in the years since, just as work-from-home has radically changed what work can look like, the typical educational experience has started to become less strictly defined, more expansive.
The students who filled seats on stage in a Canyon High School auditorium Friday had used their years at William S. Hart Union High School District’s only online school to learn Russian, work on race cars, travel, play sports, play video games and, in many cases, work.
Teachers took turns describing each student’s path to graduation in a few sentences as they received their diploma Friday — one perk of having a small graduating class — and their stories often provoked surprise from the packed audience of graduates’ family members.
“Our graduation in particular is so special, because we get to meet our students so personally,” English teacher Nida Gedgaudas told The Signal. “We all feel that makes (Learning Post) very special.”
That often included a dedication to their studies that allowed them to get a foot in early for career experience: 19 students in total from the graduating class had completed career technical education pathways from 13 industries, including health care, entrepreneurship, TV production and visual design.
But an “expansive” definition of education can mean higher highs and lower lows; Learning Post’s two commencement speakers both spoke to the life-altering possibilities presented by a decentralized schooling model, but they also described an anxiety unique to the model’s demand for self-discipline.
Savannah Aguierre, the night’s first commencement speaker, said that her trajectory at Learning Post hadn’t been perfect.
At times, she’d let her school work pile up, she said, and without the same oversight at an in-person school, it was easy to fall behind. But when “something shifted” and she was able to catch up, she — like her fellow Learning Post graduates — had been left with a lesson no traditional school could teach her in the same way: how to manage her own time, and fix her own mistakes, she said.
“We already know something a lot of people are still figuring out: How to recover,” Aguierre said. “We’re capable of figuring things out, even when it’s messy … we’ve already done it once.”
Dominique Pexa, who followed Aguierre, was one of the six students at Friday’s graduation ceremony who’s been attending Learning Post since middle school.
Pexa said attending Learning Post allowed her to both pursue an acting career and travel cross-country — with dogs. Echoing Aguierre, she described graduating as an occasion to reflect on how Learning Post had uniquely steeled them with the strengths to meet the moment.
“At the center of all those feelings is one thing: Change,” Pexa said. “Choosing LPA itself was a decision to embrace change.”
Having agency, being capable, and trusting yourself in ways not everyone can embrace: All things her fellow classmates had practiced at Learning Post, she said, and those lessons meant something especially important.
“The world isn’t coming at me, it’s coming from me,” Pexa said.
