Aiken Scholars Academy held commencement exercises for its Class of 2023 on Thursday evening at the University of South Carolina Aiken Convocation Center.
The public school for academically advanced students, housed on the USC Aiken campus, takes its learners through all AP courses through the first half of high school, and dual enrollment at USC Aiken during their junior and senior years.
As the school has a maximum enrollment of 200 students, the Class of 2023 is modest, consisting of 44 graduates, most of them with honors. But the small class size still translated to big cheers from the crowd of families in the stands.
“We are done and, most importantly, we are going to do big things,” said salutatorian Isabella Peralta, encouraging her fellow graduates in her welcome address.
Zephanae Pomay-O Liis, the commencement speaker selected from the senior class, used the school’s mascot, the phoenix, a metaphor for the theme of transformation in her address.
“You’re innovative and pioneering,” she said to her classmates, speaking on their journey as one of the first classes to graduate from the Academy. “You’re ambitious, incredibly strong-willed and bear an admirable, insatiable desire to win. But also like the phoenix, you know how it feels to burn.”
The led to a trip down memory lane for the class, in which Liis described the various changes many students went through over the years, studying in USC Aiken’s Ruth Patrick Science Center — “doing research on zebrafish, yeast, enzymes, and brain trauma, to organizing calm art galleries and club exhibitions. You went from waiting for teachers to take you to Starbucks to working in Starbucks yourself.”
Aiken County Superintendent King Laurence echoed Liis’ theme, reading from the children’s book “Maybe” by Kobi Yamada.
“‘You may fall down, you might fail… but you will also get back up and you will rise will be stronger and a little taller,’” quoted Laurence. He concluded by telling the grads, “You have the tools that you need, now go out and make a difference.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
