Sensational Accomplishments Warrant Celebration

Congratulations Graduates! 

We are so proud of the class of 2020, it is an honor to recognize the following local graduates for their outstanding achievements:

Elliot James Wicks

Seattle Lutheran, High School Diploma

Grandson of Jodi Wicks

Graham Buyagawan

Seattle Christian, High School Diploma, Grand Honors

Sawyer Buyagawan

Seattle Christian, High School Diploma, Grand Honors

Sons of Jenn and Norm Buyagawan

Emmaliyah Chea 

Tyee, High School Diploma 

Highline College, Associate’s Degree

Daughter of Leah Chea

Jaclyn Hill 

The University of Washington, Bachelor’s Degree

Foster School of Business, Undergraduate Degree

Daughter of Julie and Clyde Hill

We're happy to be celebrating your success. We are all excited for you and your future. 

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This year’s graduates were only kids when the first iPhone came out. Facebook wasn’t around to capture their births, but by 2009, when today’s high school graduates turned 7, there were 350 million users documenting smiles before the first day of school.

So perhaps it’s not surprising that their final months of high school, or for others, the end of their college careers, have unspooled on the Internet. But this particular iteration of online life has brought mostly sadness. If you’ve studied for four years, dreaming of the final weeks of school, with its freedom and light, pranks and parties, how do you settle for a sign on the lawn declaring, “Congratulations, Class of 2020!”?

They’ve known hardship before. Situated demographically on the leading edge of Generation Z, they can’t remember a time when the twin towers touched the clouds over Manhattan, or when the United States was not at war. They lived through the Great Recession.

Now, college graduates are launching themselves into the worst job market since the Great Depression. Some high school graduates are, too. Others face the possibility that a virus that destroyed the end of high school may also disrupt the start of college.

And yet they moved on, writing their final papers and logging on for their last classes. They gather with family and friends via Zoom for virtual commencement ceremonies. The “Congratulations, Class of 2020!” signs pale against expectations, yet eyes still fill with happy tears when they are delivered.

The pandemic has upended the final months for the Class of 2020 in ways tiny and profound, academic and economic, social, and emotional. These graduates each have their own slice of the story that they, and we, will be telling for decades to come.