[music] >> Good afternoon. I'm Andrea Easter, working at the Early Learning Center, and I want to welcome all the families and friends who are here today to celebrate with us. I'd also like to thank our school board members, Robin Seri, Catherine Diamond, and Leah. Welcome. And our superintendent, Michael Tony, and members of cabinet, we really appreciate you being here with us today to celebrate. I am going to start with our Dakota land acknowledgement. We want to acknowledge that District 196 resides within Minnesota, the home of the Dakota, the homeland of the Dakota people, the Eastern Nation of the Oceti Sakowin Nation. This land has been the Dakota Nation's home every generation since their creation, Akta Lakota, and Bdewakantwan. Minnesota is also the home of the Anishinaabe and many other indigenous peoples who have and do contribute to the overall foundation of this region. We encourage all members of the District 196 community to join us in learning more about the people, contributions, sovereignty, and treaty rights of the Dakota and Anishinaabe people. District 196 will continue to strengthen our relationship with Minnesota's 11 sovereign nation and indigenous communities, families, and students. It's an honor to be here today to celebrate with each other. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be in this role as the board leader here at the ELC for the past 2 years. It's allowed me to see the greatness in each of you. There are 12 different reasons that you can be eligible as a student at an ELC school. And by design, these reasons outline what has challenged students in our traditional educational system. I believe strongly in the work we do at the ELC and the opportunity for students to demonstrate their greatness while achieving their goals. This fall, our staff worked to define our vision and came up with at the ELC, we believe in a flexible, inclusive learning environment where all students are valued for who they are, taught skills and habits in an alternative way, and we measure success through personal and academic growth. We are here today celebrating 33 students who will receive their high school diploma during the 2025-2026 school year. 22 of you are here today to walk across our stage. Together, we're celebrating all of the accomplishments you've made finishing high school and preparing for your next adventure. Last spring, students spent time in their English class helping us define what it is to what it is to do at the ELC, and we developed the RISE acronym. Prior to that, staff had played with it and come up with a variety of different words, but your words, the students' words, spoke more truly to what it is to rise above and find success. The R stands for relationships, I is for inclusive, S is for support, and E is for empower. As I look out at this group of graduates, you graduates embody all of these things. Your relationships with both staff and peers have been an astounding guide to changing outcomes. You have learned and leaned into past challenges and found both individuals who can help you reach your goals. The I in pride stands for inclusive. You have each come from diverse backgrounds and have faced unique challenges that our traditional systems aren't designed to support. I can see really amazing and how smoothly things go when you walk up to students every single week that they are out. As a student body, you bring all these students and help them foster this environment of inclusivity. Many students come to an enrollment meeting worried they won't know someone. I can think of examples of how each one of you have welcomed new students and built bonds that allow everyone to feel welcomed and ready to try something new. Support comes in many forms. I think back to the happy tree last fall. Many of you were chosen to be leaders and leaders to support others in finding their voice and feeling welcomed. I challenge you to continue to be that support. And identify who those individuals are that will continue to support you on your new adventures after high school. Finally, we come to empower. I hope that your time at CAMHS has empowered you to dream big and believe you are capable of hard things. Each of you today has already done the hard thing. You made it. Now, set that next goal, find your strength, and use your determination to continue to rise above. Next, I'd like to welcome to the stage Breanna Marshall. Breanna is a student that graduated with us this winter and she's going to tell you a little bit about her student experience as a student and how her journey has continued. >> Good evening everyone. To our distinguished family and friends, and of course my fellow graduates. I think we can all agree this is not exactly a normal high school experience. Some people finished in four years, some people had to repeat a year or two, and some of us, like me, treated high school like a subscription service. We just kept renewing. So, technically I graduated in November. So, if you're wondering why I'm still here, honestly, same. But if this experience taught me anything, it's that timelines are kind of boring. We grow up thinking everything is supposed to happen ordered in order, step by step, right on track. But real life doesn't follow a schedule. It doesn't wait until you're ready, and sometimes it leads you to things you never saw coming. For some of us, that may be dealing with loss. For others, it may be challenges people didn't see. And I'm not going to pretend that those things didn't change us, because they did. They changed how we see time, they changed what we think matters, and they changed what it means to keep going. There were days where school didn't feel important at all. Days where just getting through the day felt like enough. And for a while, it felt like everything was off track. But standing here now, I realize that wasn't falling behind. It was learning something different. Learning how to be strong in your own way. How to keep showing up when it would be easier not to. And how to carry hard things without letting them stop you. And I know I'm not the only one. Because the truth is, everyone here has something. Maybe not the same thing, maybe not something people can see, but something that made us work harder than others on the outside. And yet, we're still here. And this matters more than any timeline I've ever And I think part of the reason we're all sitting today is because of the people in this building. The teachers who didn't just teach us, they loved us. The staff who checked in with me even when we said we were fine. The people who gave us grace when life felt overwhelming and pushed us to be here today. You might not realize it, but those small moments mean a lot. And they made this place feel a little more human, a little more accepting, and for some of us, a place where we could keep going even on our hard days. So, truly, thank you for your patience, your support, and for not giving up on us. You put in the work, and you put in the effort, and we appreciate it a lot. After I graduated, I started college at Auburn University in January, which was obviously a little chaotic, like going from raising your hand to go to the bathroom to "Your fully responsible for your college life now. Good luck." But somehow, I made it through my first semester studying biopsychology with a minor in sociology with a 3.9 GPA. I needed me more than anyone else. And I think that proves to something, maybe to me, maybe to all of us. You don't have to have everything figured out to move forward. You just have to be willing to try. And maybe that's what this moment really is. Not a finish line, not some perfect polished ending, but proof. Proof that we can handle more than we thought we could. Proof that even when life doesn't go the way we planned, we can still build something out of it. And proof that progress doesn't always look the way we expect. So, as we leave here, I don't think the goal is to suddenly have a perfect plan. I think the goal is to stay open, to keep going even when things feel uncertain, to be proud of how far we've come even if it doesn't look like anyone else's journey, and to remember that strength doesn't always look like big obvious moments. Sometimes it looks like getting out of bed, sometimes it looks like showing up, and sometimes it looks like standing on a stage after everything and saying, "We did it." To my classmates, I'm proud of you, not just for graduating, but for everything it took to get here, for everything you've been through, the things people saw, and the things they didn't. Those experiences are what part of got us here, what are part of got us here, and they'll be a part of what carries us forward. So, here's to the future. Not perfect, not predictable, but ours. And if there's one thing I hope you carry with us after today, it's this. We don't need everything to make sense right now. We don't need a perfect plan, and we don't need it to We don't need to have it all figured out to move forward. Because if we've learned anything, it's that we are capable of getting through the things that we never thought we could. So, whatever comes next, whether it's exciting, uncertain, or somewhere in between, just remember you already made it through the hard parts, and you can keep going. Congratulations, Class of 2026. You didn't just make it, you grew through it. No matter what happens, you will. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Brianna. I am so impressed by your resilience and your commitment, and I'm thankful you were willing to come here today. So, thank you. Next, I'd like to invite to the stage Michael Athorne, our Assistant Administrator, who is going to share with you our graduates. >> Good afternoon. Good afternoon, and thank you for all for joining us to celebrate the Class of 2026. My name is Michael Athorne, and I have the privilege of serving as an Assistant Administrator here at the ALC. It's an honor to stand before you today for what I hope is the first of many years of recognizing graduates. And I will forever be grateful, especially to the grandfathers of this class, for welcoming me me into the school community. Allowing me to be part of your journey this past year. It's been a privilege to watch many of you grow and reach this important milestone. And at this time, it is my honor to present the graduates of the class of 2026. So, Apple Valley attendance area, please rise. Brela Anderson Evan Diamond >> [applause] >> Mason Morrison Naseem Manigo Priyal Marshall >> [applause] >> Myles Peterson Miles Samuel O'HANLON >> GO, BRI! >> AT THIS TIME, OUR INDIAN attendant area graduates to the Evan of your home. Chris Palmer and Mason. Dustin Brandon. So, Manuel Diaz. Tia Marie Jaden Gilbert. >> JAMES CRAMER BRANDON DELANEY ADAM DONATELL >> [applause] >> Gabriel Slater Hayden Franklin Please rise. All right, by the authority vested in this school by the state of Minnesota and the school board, and upon the recommendation of faculty and administration, I recognize that you have successfully completed the requirements for graduation. Graduates, please move your tassels from the right side to the left. >> It is my honor and privilege to present to you the graduates of the Area Learning Center Class of 2026. >> [cheering] [cheering]