By SanTan Sun News Staff
Hill Learning Academy hosted its annual senior night event on May 25 at Chandler Center for the Arts to honor students who have completed their graduation requirements for the Chandler Unified School District.
Students are referred to Hill Learning Academy from their home high school, often on credit recovery. Between two campuses, Hill Learning Academy serves about 310 students each school year.
This year, 89 students graduated from Hill, the school district’s alternative education program. The annual senior night had about 350 guests in attendance.
Among the graduates, George Cazares Jr. was the senior speaker for the event. Cazares gave a speech about his own personal experiences, which led him to a full-time job with AlphaGraphics.
Victoria Foster and Riley Anderson were both selected for the Perseverance Award. Students who receive this award are recognized for overcoming their biggest challenges to earn their diploma.
At the ceremony, a staff member speaks about each student as a way to share the accomplishments and challenges each student has faced while earning their diplomas.
“We have a staff that understands who they are teaching, knows the ways to reach them, and pushes just hard enough to get them to complete their classes,” Dave Constance, principal at Hill Learning Academy, wrote in an email.
The event concluded with a rose ceremony, where each student handed out roses to the people who helped them along the way. Many of the roses are handed to family members, but many students also hand them to teachers.
Many of the students who graduated this May walked at graduation with their home schools on May 31.
Caption: George Cazares Jr., a Hill Learning Academy graduate, was the senior speaker for the annual senior night. He’s here with Jen Chandler, program specialist at Hill.
