By Sean Delaney
For principal Maria Palermo of the Emery Collegiate Institute their 2024 Grad on June 27th was a celebration of a uniquely resilient class.
“I think the class of 2024 really stood out because they were the class most impacted by the pandemic in many ways,” she said. “One of things neat about the ceremony is that all the middle school principals attended because these students didn’t get a Grade 8 graduation.”
Palermo said this class started Grade 9 with a very strange schedule, and then Grade 10 started to return to a typical high school experience, but it really wasn’t until Grade 11 and 12 that they began a typical experience.
“So, it was a very resilient class. And a class with some really strong leadership,” Palermo said. “The student leaders brought back the Emery spirit, the extra curriculars. The return was very much on the shoulders of these students.”
Palermo said the valedictorian did a fabulous job of outlining the experience of this unique class and paying tribute to the families that had supported them on their journey through high school.
“For me it was a high point of the ceremony.”
And they celebrated a lot of student success. A graduate with an indigenous background won an award from York University that earned them a $30,000 scholarship, as well as other awards that Palermo said will see their post-secondary costs more than taken care of.
They also had a group of black identifying students who participated in a pilot project with Western, York and Queens University business schools that began in their Grade 11.
They worked for two years with the initiative and essentially earned themselves a full post-secondary scholarship. And another student won the Honderich award from York University.
“It was really awesome to sit and think about how many students are going with true financial support that takes away that barrier to the next step,” Palermo said. “It was wonderful to celebrate all of them.”