REFLECTING ON THE CLASS OF 2024
Philip Wong, Senior Seminar Teacher and Early College Director
June 2024
Invariably, each school year ends in a blur of festivities. Even so, this May felt particularly hectic. Running from College and Career Signing Day to Prom to their beach trip and Senior Celebration and finally Graduation, I don’t think any of us really got the time to reflect on the special journey we undertook with the Class of 2024 until after that final tassel made its trek from right to left. For me, it was the morning after, as I lay in bed scrolling through photos and replaying key moments in my memory, that made this year a uniquely difficult one to leave behind.
“Control what you can. Let go of the rest.” That was the advice I gave to the Class of 2024 on our first day of the Senior Seminar back in August 2023. Knowing the work that lay ahead of us, and the life choices awaiting them, I wanted to stress the importance of doing the best with what they would have in front of them, of making the best choices given the information they would have and the core values they each held. That they would get into a college was certain; whether or not they’d receive enough support - familial and financial - would be another question. This was to be the year of the new FAFSA, after all. Given the high school trajectory of the Class of 2024, however, I knew they had experience navigating transitions through global uncertainty before.
Starting their high school careers on Zoom and returning to in-person learning as sophomores, during a school year in which we were all remembering how to function together again may have truncated their development, but it also fueled what many of us who’ve worked with this class have come to appreciate about them - their drive and dedication. Perhaps due to a greater longing for civic engagement than many who came before them, this graduating class thrived in school and community action, devoting hundreds of hours to extracurricular and community activities, from leading school clubs and affinity spaces to volunteering at vaccine clinics and spearheading a program for a more sustainable future. Six of them were even honored by the City of East Palo Alto with the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. These experiences played out winningly through much of their college essay writing and in multiple scholarship interviews, underscoring our seniors’ capacity for growth and their ability to make the best out of difficult situations they didn’t ask for.
I am privileged, as the Senior Seminar teacher, to witness the moments when students realize their dreams – when after years of hard academic work or after learning a valuable life lesson, they are able to carve for themselves a path. Many students reflected on the impact that the pandemic had on their mental health and their mindsets when they started high school. One lasting memory for me was hearing from a senior who, after choosing to pursue a highly sought-after career in the trades, said that he wished he had realized earlier that he was maybe more capable than he had given his freshman self credit for. (However, illuminating a laptop screen is in a dark room; it can be hard, after all, to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you’re 13 and disconnected from everything but your wifi.) Others, nevertheless, proceeded through the end of senior year seemingly undaunted. The exhilaration felt by our valedictorian when she clicked yes on her Intent to Enroll is a secret joy I was blessed to share in. For these reasons and 62 others, I remain in awe as much of their resilience as I am of their youthful exuberance for what comes next.
The trust that our students place in me to help them through their next steps is an honor, but it can also be scary at times. This year, there have been moments where I’ve felt powerless to help them, but I learned from them to let go of what I couldn’t control. To let life, and them, figure it out. They are young adults, after all. So even though I had urged them to do just that back in August, in the end, they were the ones to teach me that lesson. And perhaps that’s why, more than ever before, letting go is so very bittersweet.
–Philip Wong, Senior Seminar Teacher and Early College Director
