It’s been a disappointing end to the school year, particularly for Grade 12 students, but R.D. Parker Collegiate made sure some of the usual trappings were still taking place by inviting graduating students to the school June 1 to cast votes for class valedictorian.
With schools opening up for some in-person interaction between students and teachers as of June 1, the RDPC forum was the site for graduates to vote for their preferred valedictorian and pick up a gift basket identified as a graduate survival pack.
The two candidates on the ballot were Jasraj Kullar and Karisma Vyas, who had to employ novel strategies to campaign since they couldn’t see their classmates at school five days a week for the past two-and-a-half months.
“I campaigned online, I made TikToks, I set up posters around the school outside of the building, made yard signs and I just put up posters where everybody would go like Shell, the mall, the statue,” said Kullar. “I had to get the word out.”
“I made four different videos,” said Vyas. “My idea for all the videos was to try and get at many people involved as possible so I wanted to get students in the grad class, students in our high school, students that were supposed to be in our grad class but moved away. I also got the gym teachers in one of the videos because I feel like graduation’s more than just one person, it’s not just about valedictorian, it’s about the whole grad class and everyone coming together to celebrate the past four years and our accomplishments.”
Vyas said learning remotely hasn’t been too difficult to her since she was only taking two full classes and one half-credit class this year because she had been planning to go on school trips to Europe and Florida.
“I’m only taking English and biology right now and both my teachers having been doing a really good job of keeping contact with the students and making sure we’re doing all right with our studies so I think the teachers have been doing a really good job,” she said.
Keeping some of the normal traditions alive is comforting in such an abnormal year, said the candidates.
“It’s important that we have something to boost morale and get kids excited,” said Vyas.
“We’re supposed to be graduating and all of this happened,” said Kullar. “ It just kind of sucks in general but hopefully things should clear up.”
