CENTER LINE

To the Graduating Class of 2022,

You did it and this is your time to shine. It’s a moment to look back on your educational journey, to celebrate the successes as well as the struggles, and to honor those who have walked the journey with you. Some may have been by your side the whole time while others walked alongside you for a moment. Your journey matters. It has helped shape the person you are today and lay the foundation for who you will be tomorrow.

It started the day you walked through the doors of your kindergarten classroom. You remember. Maybe you entered with trepidation, tears streaming down your cheeks clinging to your mom’s hand. Maybe you walked in boldly, commanding a room full of 5-year-olds. Maybe you quietly eased around the corner watching, observing your surroundings, and weighing whether to stay or flee.

Since that day you have navigated your way through so many life experiences. You learned to read. You made friends and lost friends. You tried new things. You celebrated wins and grieved losses. You discovered your passion. You experienced joy and heartbreak. You found your voice and you learned to use it.

And now at the moment that brings your K-12 educational journey to an end, we celebrate you. With Pomp and Circumstance reverberating from the sound system, we honor the Class of 2022 with a grand ceremony surrounded by friends and family. Each year as I sit on the stage and watch eager graduates accept their diplomas and take the next step toward their future, I ponder where each journey will lead.

I hope that we have done our best to prepare each of you to take that next step into the life you have envisioned. Some of you will be entering the workplace in the fall. Some will stay home and attend college. Some will be leaving home for a university out of state and some will be leaving home to serve our country. Preparing you for what’s next goes beyond academics. Have we prepared you to dream big, set goals, and persevere? Have we taught you to pick yourself up and dust yourself off when the journey gets hard or the path doesn’t go exactly as we planned? I hope so.

The world is a very different place than it was 4 years ago when your journey led you to Center or McClellan High School. You, the Class of 2022, will be bound together forever. You will be the class whose 9th grade experience was considered normal. You will be the class who started 10th grade with more confidence only to have life as you knew it, completely change amid a global pandemic. You will be the class who didn’t experience normalcy again, until your senior year. But this is only part of your story and you, the Class of 2022 get to write the rest, so make it a good one.

Every day you can choose to be a better person than the day before. Every day you can choose to look forward instead of behind. Every day you can choose to make the world a kinder place.

If I can offer a few words of advice as you leave high school behind and begin to navigate your path, let it be this. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. This is where the greatest growth happens. Take chances. Some of your most extraordinary accomplishments may lie along the path of the road less traveled. Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is where the most substantial lessons are learned.

In conclusion, the words of Harley Davidson seem to be the most appropriate send-off to the extraordinary Class of 2022. “When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen.”

Sincerely,

Scott A. Loehr

CJUSD Superintendent

First held in 1989, the Top Ten Dinner is an academic recognition steeped in tradition at Center High School. It’s an honor bestowed upon seniors whose grade point average (GPA) is in the top ten of their graduating class.

District and school administrators, teaching staff, and proud families attended the Top Ten Dinner on March 29th to recognize the Top Ten Honorees for the Class of 2022. Each Top Ten student was introduced by a selected teacher or staff member that has had an impact on the student’s high school experience. Students were invited to give a speech, reflecting on their time at Center High School and their post-high school goals and aspirations.

The Top Ten Dinner has become one of the most valued and long-standing traditions at Center High School. Congratulations to the following 2022 Center High School graduates for their academic excellence: Bianca Mendoza (4.42 gpa), Daejah Dandrich (4.39 gpa), Caitlyn Nguyen (4.34 gpa), Jarrett Anderson (4.32 gpa), Yanna Sagun (4.32 gpa), Asha Sajid (4.27 GPA), Liew Saelee (4.25 gpa), Elisabeth Hale (4.21 gpa), Hadia Safi (4.20 gpa) and Lyubov Lyubimova-Hunko (4.19 gpa).

The Center Joint Unified School District is committed to equal opportunity for all individuals in education. School and district programs, activities and services shall be free from unlawful discrimination based on actual or perceived sex, race, color, national origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, ancestry, ethnic group identification, gender, physical or mental disability, or on the basis of a person’s association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics, or sexual harassment in any district service, program and/or activity that receives or benefits from state financial assistance. The district shall promote programs, which ensure that unlawful discriminatory practices are eliminated in all school and district activities.

Email: superintendent@centerusd.org
Website: www.centerusd.org
Location: 8408 Watt Avenue, Antelope, CA, United States
Phone: (916) 338-6400
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/centerusd
Twitter: @centerusd