On Friday, June 9, Viewpoint’s 106 Eighth Grade students gathered with their families, friends, and faculty on the Ring Family Field for a Promotion Ceremony to celebrate their many accomplishments and the completion of Middle School. 

The ceremony included inspiring remarks from Head of School Mark McKee who praised the students for demonstrating excellence academically, athletically, and artistically. He reminded the students that we live in a time of educational abundance and that they can look forward to long lives of continual learning. He also offered students three secrets of success. The first is to work hard and persist, which will serve them well in Upper School and beyond. The second is to make connections with one another and adults and to continually strive to lift each other up. And third, is to find a passion or even more than more - and if it doesn’t exist yet, create it.

The ceremony also featured fine performances by the Eighth Grade Band, Strings, and Choir, as well as charming and heartfelt remembrances from the Class Historians. In her Eight Grade Address, Kayla Paschall encouraged her classmates to remember the strength they demonstrated over the last few years, and “to know that if we can survive and thrive through a global pandemic, we can survive and thrive through high school.”

Congratulations to the Eighth Grade Class and best of luck in Upper School!