001miss tamaria padilla campus librarian mr joe achampura science mr caleb smith math mr chuck phillips social studies miss pam scott cool school counselor officer matt pesca is wandering around keeping us safe security ms pfeiffer school bookkeeper mr bill baron is back hosting our summer school he's english mr randall thomas campus facilitator mr jack kim district technology technician miss karen wasserman special ed yearbook art and discovery and mr derrick wells senior building manager extraordinaire you'll see him up here in a few minutes seniors you have also been supported by your family and friends who have helped you on this journey we encourage you to acknowledge and thank your greatest supporters your family during this busy season make sure you take several opportunities and find multiple ways of thanking them i too thank our parents for their
002support and encouragement throughout this eventful year at this time it is my pleasure to introduce mr tom gregory superintendent of academy of school district 20. mr gregory joined academy district 20 staff in 1991 as a middle school math teacher at challenger middle school shortly after he transferred to rampart high school where he served 11 years as a math teacher math department co-chair football coach softball coach baseball coach and finally as rampart's assistant principal and athletic director for four of those 11 years in 2009 mr gregory became chief financial officer and served in that capacity until 2016 when he added the duties of deputy superintendent along with being cfo in 2019 mr gregory was named the superintendent of academy district 20. mr gregory earned his master's degree in educational leadership and his principal licensure from the
003university of colorado at colorado springs he earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics and his secondary school teacher licensure from the university of southern colorado please welcome mr gregory thank you mrs cold and heaven i would like to start by acknowledging dr jim smith and all of our high school principals for their continuous efforts to plan replan and plan again graduation ceremonies over the last few months to keep up with ever-changing guidance their focus was always centered on developing a traditional graduation ceremony with as few restrictions as possible dr smith and miss koldenhoven on behalf of academy district 20 community thank you for making this day a celebration possible i also want to thank class of 2021 student kayla shaw for participating on my student advisory council this past year kayla not only did you represent
004the aspen valley student voice with honor and pride your perspective regarding website effectiveness online learning covid frustrations equity and inclusion graduation ceremonies and many other topics was valued and constructive thank you kayla well class of 2021 congratulations you've made it you've now navigated some of the most difficult circumstances faced by students in decades you sacrificed the end of your junior year and continued that sacrifice through your senior year and your senior year has been like no other remote learning in-person learning online learning and hybrid learning that's a lot of learning and all of that learning included a host of new norms such as mask breaks cohorting social distancing quarantines hand sanitizer more quarantines more hand sanitizer and more quarantines you endured shortened athletic seasons online concerts and plays outdoor proms numerous cancellation and dare i
005say it not one single snow day that was not all your senior year was by was marked by some of the most contentious social and political events in history your senior year has been one of historical proportions you've made history in 10 20 50 or more years students and teachers will read about your journey in their history classes but through it all you persevered you were patient flexible and you showed grit in short you've demonstrated resilience resilience is described as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape or simply put being elastic resilience is now part of your dna and frankly that is a good thing because resilience is a characteristic you will need to lean on throughout your life i wish i
006could tell you that life will get easier and resilience is a trait you only needed in 2020 and 2021 but the truth is whether your job your education or your relationships you will face challenges you overcame the challenges of your senior year and you will continue to overcome future challenges because you are adaptable you are persistent you are resilient and you are creative problem solvers excuse me an article in the journal of medicine from 2016 reads resilience is an individual's ability to adaptively respond to hardship stress and adversity it is the ability to bounce back that describes each of you that same article also says individuals who report high levels of resilience typically portray an optimistic outlook positive emotionality curiosity and openness towards new experiences they were able to emerge from a challenge stronger wiser
007and more powerful resilience correlates strongly with success interpersonal satisfaction happiness and hope as you leave here today prepare to make your mark on this world i ask that you use the events of the last 16 months to propel you forward no matter how much the world tries to hold you back challenge you or knock you down always continue with a belief that what you want to achieve is possible do not lose hope stay confident believe in the possibilities channel your curiosity seek solutions to problems that others can't you find your hope through many means hope can arise from simply taking in new information or gaining new knowledge sometimes it may just be the smile of a trusted friend the friend who trusts in you or in your ability to find a creative solution to a
008new problem as described in the story of the lone shark and the daughter the story goes in a small italian town many years ago a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan shark the loan shark was an old rough looking guy that just so happened to fancy the business owner's daughter the loan shark offered the businessman a deal that would dissolve the businessman's debt however there was a catch the catch was he would only forgive the debt if he could marry the businessman's daughter needless to say this proposal was met with disgust but they didn't have many options as the story goes the lone shark proposed that he would place two pebbles into a bag one white pebble and one red the daughter would then reach into the bag and
009pick out a pebble if the pebble selected was red the debt would be forgiven and the loan shark would marry the daughter if the stone selected was white the debt would still be forgiven but the daughter would not have to marry the loan shark standing on a path strewn with red and white pebbles in the business man's garden the lone shark bent over and picked up two pebbles as he was picking them up the daughter noticed that he had picked up two red pebbles and placed both of them into the bag he then asked the daughter to reach into the bag and select one naturally the daughter had three choices as to what she could do one refused to pick a pebble from the bag which certainly would not help her father two take both
010pebbles out of the bag and expose the loan shark for a cheater which would also not help her father or take a chance pick a pebble from the bag full well knowing it was red and sacrifice herself for her father's financial freedom so she reluctantly drew a pebble from the bag and before the color was discovered she appeared to quote unquote accidentally drop it to the ground undetectable amend amid all the other pebbles she had quickly engineered a fourth option after a short pause she said to the loan shark oh how clumsy of me but if you look into the bag for the pebble that is left you will be able to tell which pebble i dropped the pebble left in the bag was obviously red and seeing as this loan shark did not want
011to be exposed he had to play along as if the pebble the daughter dropped was white her father's debt was cleared and the loan shark defeated her creative solution saved the situation in an instant the father and daughter went from feeling hopeless to feeling hopeful as a result of a short moment in time when she saw solutions others did not as martin luther king jr stated we must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope you are graduating today from a great school in a fabulous district in a terrific community in a wonderful state in the greatest country in the world you have every reason to be hopeful and optimistic as you reflect and celebrate on your time in high school remember you did not make it here alone please take time to thank the
012friends teachers parents grandparents and or anyone else who pushed or perhaps pulled you to this day congratulations aspen valley high school class of 2020 i wish you a successful hopeful and fulfilling future be well and be safe thank you thank you mr gregory at each graduation members of the senior class are asked if any of them wish to speak this year we have three senior speakers catherine geiger is our newest senior having just joined us this year kat is creative smart and loves animals katherine has been accepted to texas a m in galveston texas where she will study marine biology catherine the stage is yours a senior this is my last year and frankly i wish i had found out about this school sooner this is a place where i have felt most happy out
013of all the schools i have attended in my life being here i have gotten a glimpse of what could have been my school life i have made real friends here for life people who i will come in contact with for a long time to come this environment is one that more schools need to have it's a special community and has something more schools should try to copy there are so many teachers who care about the students and are passionate about their jobs and i have had previous experiences that are far different often times teachers would over assign homework until you work yourself into the ground just working on assignments after a full day of assignments i have to say everyone here thank you thank you for everything for the memories and for the total experience
014of being accepted and embraced for the teenager i am thank you catherine good advice our next bridge our next speaker is bridget vossen bridgette has attended aspen valley since seventh grade and is planning on joining the navy after graduation for now you will often find her working hard at garbanzo's restaurant alongside her mother she and her mother just served us lunch for the aspen valley staff last week delicious bridgette hello everyone i am bridget vossen i have been at aspen since seventh grade and time has truly flown by so in saying that i would want to congratulate the class of 2021 we made it this adventure has not been an easy one but the loss of classmates and family members fortunately i have received amazing support from aspen which has been like a second home
015to me i have received so much love and support over the years thank you to all the amazing staff especially miss chavez ms hemingway and many others without all of you i do not think i would have been able to become who i am today your support and guidance has made the difference there are so many fond memories i will never forget like listening to monster by scaling in the back of the class with audrey and miss chavez was just laughing at us i really do miss her traditions are established and carried by on by those who follow i remember the lip syncing battle during hogwarts week so much fun and i had a memory that that was a memory i will never forget hogwarts is one of the most is one of the many
016traditions at aspen this one lasts an entire week where different competitions are sponsored by student council putting puma pumas against pumas to determine which class will take the victory i love the lip sync battle because my puma class chose to do a song from beetlejuice which i love in closing thank you to aspen valley for all the memories over the past seven years it has been a crazy ride and i can't wait to see what our future holds and in saying that may we meet again thank you bridget well done our last senior speaker is one of our student leaders and under her guidance student council hosted several student events this year michaela shaw is familiar with the stage as she was the district's senior speaker this year welcoming all of academy 20 back at
017our kickoff event in august kayla is taking a year off before possibly pursuing work in business or maybe in the english field please welcome michaela okay thank you golden oven and thank you bridget first i'd like to thank the staff and teachers for making this year possible and memorable i'd also like to thank our family friends peers and of course staff for joining us and celebrating this moment okay so here we are congratulations guys we made it after countless sleepless nights ridiculous high school drama our fair share of mistakes and of course fisher's endless dad jokes we've made it so good job i don't know about the rest of you but this is a moment i have been dreaming about since i was a freshman sitting in the groudout of the graduation i was in
018awe of these ready to go no fear against the world seniors and now that i've been one i realize we're all just kind of like this little cat hesitating for this huge jump hoping we don't splat on the ground beneath and become a mildly funny venue on youtube more or less okay maybe it's just me here we are 2021 and i can't quite round my head around where time went 2021 was always just the year i knew we were going to graduate it was just another year i saw on people's instagram profiles and to be honest it didn't really mean much until it was here i never would have imagined this year as so abnormal so trying but developing that it would be the making the makings of national history yet gone in the blink
019of an eye i had been dreaming about this the big senior year i was sure it was going to be something incredible but like many over romanticized expectations i was kind of disappointed with the actual outcome although i've recently figured out why and i actually kind of love every crazy bit i was disappointed because i let years of unrealistic and cloudy expectations dictate what this year should have looked like for me in the process i think i just forgot to look at everything and take it as just as if not more incredible than everything i had expected of it i had told myself that i was going to live in the moment this year really soak it up because i knew how important it was going to be to me but in the end i
020think i was just too ready for this day too ready for it to be over and i let it slip by me i had my sights set on this day like many of us it was all i was really working towards now granted you could say i did it with a pretty job because as surreal as it may be this is real right now for all of us but i had to question while i was working up to this day and sometimes okay most of the time clawing my way to the stay what else did i lose sight of along the way did i lose sight of every crazy aspen moment that in some way made me who i am today did i lose set of how a high school taught me how to lead
021persevere fight for my stance and there was one last thing i was putting off to oh procrastinating like a boss might i add well maybe you question this too or maybe not but let me thought set that thought straight sure you may have taken some things for granted but let me reassure you you did not miss any of it this will all always be with you whether you like it or not the next or the last 12 or more specifically four years have made you into who you are sitting here today and without any of it you wouldn't even be here today so don't regret taking for granted whatever you did and we all did with something don't wish you could do that one night over or wish you never did it at all don't
022clink into that random mistake that i promise won't matter once you've got the your hands on those diplomas instead i implore you to recognize it embrace it learn from it and cherish it because true you will never get these years back or get to redo them but you will always hold every valuable experience memory and moment with you in who you are sometimes we can't help but miss the things right in front of us because we're too ready to graduate too ready to rush life sometimes we just miss it but that's okay sometimes it's just hard getting fixated on that fast forward button of life yes there's a lot to look forward to in life and you should get excited for those things just don't get stuck waiting for them think of it like this
023if all you ever do is wait for the cookies to be done how can you stop and smell the warmth of the baking in the oven how can you take a piece of the dough just to test it and how can you enjoy those delicious cookies if you're just waiting for the next batch so now from now on set your sights on something that really counts not the weekend not your next paycheck or vacation not even what life has in store for you once you've got those diplomas but right now be in the moment this moment look around you at the peers that most of you have spent four plus years growing with laughing with grieving with even fighting with but hey we always learn something and now getting ready today to say goodbye to
024learn to love right now see what is in sitting right in front of you waiting for you to recognize soak up this moment because you've earned it you fought for it and you deserve it graduation isn't just a sell about celebrating the fact that you finally earned your diploma it's also about looking forward to all the places life will take you after this ceremony so do that look forward to life just don't get stuck waiting for it get ready because you all have so many so much potential in all of your plans although it might suck to feel like you might have missed something like high school you do not want to wake up one day and feel like you miss life so enjoy right now and enjoy every moment from now on oh and
025while we're living in the moment remember to be grateful for all the staff family and friends that got you to this moment i know i am so thank you everyone and again congratulations nicely done kayla before we confer our diplomas i too would like to share a few reflections from the year my second as principal at aspen