The Northwest Sports Hub was standing-room only Friday night as the Centralia High School community gathered to celebrate its graduating senior class.
Centralia High School’s class of 2022 did not have one “normal” year of high school. They spent their freshman year in a “portable city” while the high school was being remodeled, their sophomore year partially transitioning into the remodeled school before the pandemic ended the school year early and their junior year was spent mostly virtual.
“During our entire four years, it was only my senior year that we were going to school full time. But we are here. We are a strong, resilient group that has gone through the thick and thin,” said senior Natalie Wilkerson during Friday’s commencement ceremony.
“To say the class of 2022 has endured a set of circumstances that cannot possibly be conceived would be a monumental undertaking,” said Centralia High School Principal Josue Lowe on Saturday. “You have seen it all and then some. Despite that each and every step of the way you have overcome you have endured, you have persevered. And even more than that, you have thrived.”
Of the 157 Centralia High School students who received their high school diplomas on Friday, a record-breaking 21 students also received their associate’s degrees from Centralia College through the Running Start program.
