High fiving the future Rural Virtual Academy holds graduation ceremony

NEWS EDITOR

Membersof theRuralVirtualAcademy (RVA) Class of 2020 held their commencement ceremony on Friday, July 31.

This was the third graduation ceremony held in the school’s history and recognized more than 100 graduates. RVA has students enrolled from around the state. A number of the graduates and their families took part in the outdoor ceremony held at the Nitke Auction Center in Kronenwetter. The 80-acre facility is owned by the Hansen Auction Group and use of it was donated for the ceremony.

The event began with welcoming comments from RVA high school principal Sara Holewinski and the singing of the National Anthem by graduate Brianna Schmidt of Wittenberg.

Greg Krause, president of the RVA governance board, spoke of the importance of commencement as being a stepping off point for the graduates’ next journey. Krause is the former Prentice administrator and is one of the leaders who worked to get the RVA set up.

RVA currently has 1,500 enrolled students from prekindergarten through 12th grade in its year-round virtual school programs. In addition to providing online education, the RVA provides additional educational support to the traditional “brick and mortar” schools that are part of the consortium than runs the charter school.

Adeline Fisher was the selected student speaker. She recited the poem “The Dash” by Linda Ellis noting that the poem is posted on the wall of the ice cream parlor where she works. The poem talks of the dash on a tombstone between the date of birth and the date of death representing all the years in between. The poem ends with “So when your eulogy is being read, with your life’s actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you lived your dash?” Fisher used that message to challenge the graduates to live their dash to the fullest. In addition to the speakers, Samantha Ivey of Mosinee was recognized as being the recipient of the academic excellence scholarship and Janira Ramos of Wausau was recognized for receiving the state’s technical excellence scholarship.

RVA administrator Charlie Heckel congratulated the students on reaching this milestone and wished them luck in the future.