Richmond County’s Copeland Elementary School welcomed back students from the Class of 2024 to participate in a third annual senior walk event on Thursday, May 2.
As seniors prepare to celebrate one of life’s many milestones, principal Laurie Taylor invited graduates to revisit the halls of Copeland to motivate current elementary school students.
“Hopefully, this will be a lasting memory for the students that are currently here, as well as the students that we’re celebrating today,” she said.
Copeland K-5th grade students lined the halls with handmade banners to cheer on seniors as they walked through the school in full graduation regalia, while teachers applauded their former students’ accomplishments.
“This is a visual encouragement for our students … because this is a goal that all Richmond County students should strive to achieve,“ Taylor said. “Beyond high school, there’s all kinds of choices – you can enlist, you can go into employment or you can go into enrollment – but we have to get them through high school first.”
A mother of three, two of which have already graduated high school, Taylor said she understood the multitude of emotions that accompanied graduation.
“It’s starting to get real on an emotional level with me but, as a principal of this school, it just brings so much joy to my heart,” Taylor said. “As a principal of this school it just brings such joy to my heart.”
In pursuit of continually building a “culture of excellence,” Taylor said allowing children to witness and interact with seniors gave them a tangible and real-world memory to associate with graduating high school.
“This is to help them realize this goal,” she said. “It’s not something that’s in the distant future. It is something that’s really right around the corner.”
Participating graduate student Jenna Linter, from Academy of Richmond County, said visiting Copeland Elementary and seeing her former teachers truly made the passage of time feel all the more real.
“It feels very nostalgic coming back here,” she said. “… I really took a lot of inspiration from teachers that have taught me throughout my school years.”
If she could give current elementary schoolers one piece of advice, Linter said she would tell them all to not give up, because the journey’s worth it in the end.
“I know how hard life is and you just cannot give up. You’ve got to keep going and not let all these years in school be for nothing,” she said.
Fellow graduate Jennifer Beiza, from Lucy C. Laney High School, said she was ecstatic to be back in Copeland – as the school held a lot of great memories for her.
“I loved it here. It’s so mind blowing to be back,” she said. “I want to remember all the teachers. They were the most meaningful part; I still remember them and they’re lovely people.”
Beiza said she would advise current Copeland students to “keep trying,” because students can overcome any academic obstacle if they only try.
“No matter if you got an F or skipped a few days, you can keep going,” she said.
As seniors walked the hallways and received handmade student notes and cards specially made for the occasion, graduate Jamara Cooper, from Academy of Richmond County, said she could not help but cry at the sight.
“It was just a long journey to get here, and it was a little difficult,” she said. “The screams and the yells that I made it, and am closing the chapter to start another one is what really got to me.”
Excited Copeland fifth graders Eilis Gant and Aubrey Nelson both said the senior parade also made them look forward to one day graduating in spring of 2031, and eventually saying goodbye to elementary school.
“I know they felt a whole bunch of nostalgia, but to me it felt heartwarming and inspiring,” Gant said. “It was inspiring because I know that one day I’m going to be in their shoes, walking down this hall, and I might get a little emotional too.”
Ending the small parade, seniors concluded their walk by taking turns ringing Copeland Elementary’s bell — which is traditionally rung to celebrate student success and achievement.
As graduates left the school, Taylor said she hoped each moved on knowing that their time at Copeland would forever be remembered, because “once a wildcat, always a wildcat.”
