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CLASS of 2024: Grads ready for life’s next step

Roughly 3.5 million high school students across the country will receive their diplomas this year. Just under 1.5 million college students will earn their degrees, and another 1 million will complete master’s degrees.

Whether its Jamestown High School or Fredonia Central School, Dunkirk High School or Westfield Academy and Central School, schools throughout Chautauqua County put on a truly wonderful series of commencement ceremonies celebrating our Class of 2024.

For much of the year, we’ve been hearing and reading about what a tough moment this is for students and graduates. Amid all of the pomp and circumstance, the world is in flux.

The employment landscape is unpredictable. We are still grappling with the after-effects of the pandemic, not least in its impact on mental health. And we are all concerned — especially those just starting their careers — that artificial intelligence, or AI, is going to drastically reshape the world of work, potentially rendering all sorts of knowledge workers obsolete.

As the sea of eager students reflect on their experiences over the last few years, they look forward to graduation, inspiring us with their optimism, commitment and indefatigable adaptability.

Again and again, this group of young people aren’t going to be laid low by the challenges ahead of them. Far from it. These are students who have persevered through challenges none of us expected in our lifetimes. Those who started four years ago came to college expecting one kind of life — they arrived on campus never having heard the words “coronavirus” or “pandemic” — and now they’ve managed to come out the other side.

Those who plunged in along the way were by some lights even bolder – they took the brave step of diving into a new experience of higher education when the pandemic was already afoot, when they knew how challenging things could be, but didn’t yet know the shape of things to come.

And just think about all the Class of 2024 has been through. They go from wearing N-95 masks to donning caps and gowns.

They started high school or college in 2020 with a pandemic blanketing the world. Instead of prom and walking across a stage in high school, this year’s college graduates waved goodbye to classmates over Zoom or drove past their homes honking in celebration.

The coronavirus changed their perception of what life — let alone classes — would look like for the first year of college. Since then, members of the Class of 2024 have stood as witnesses to major events impacting the world and their schools.

These classes of graduates had to go through so much. If anything, it made them more ambitious and excited. Excited for the future and excited for their lives. Excited for the world.

Congratulations on your graduation! The world awaits your future.

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