The first 52 Grade 12 students to ever set foot in the new Niverville High School left the school parking lot Tuesday evening as graduates.

Valedictorian Graham Pinkerton“It’s been a year of firsts for everyone,” says Kimberley Funk who became the school’s inaugural principal when its doors opened this past summer.

While the class of 2020 will be remembered, at least partly, for being the first to graduate from the school, Funk expects that notoriety will be all but overshadowed by COVID-19; a “first” which robbed the school year of its expected normalcy.

Like so many other schools across southeastern Manitoba, the pandemic prompted a convocation unlike ever before.

Following Tuesday's drive-in graduation ceremony aptly dubbed “curbside convocation”, the senior students paraded throughout the Town of Niverville in cap and gown, celebrating their educational milestone. The evening was crowned with a party at Whitetail Meadows, an especially pleasant surprise considering what government regulations looked like even two weeks ago.

"Last minute dress shopping and suit shopping happened, I'm sure," laughs Funk. “Now that restrictions have lifted and the capacity for outdoor gatherings has increased to 100, our grads [were able] to eat and dance together in their beautiful dresses and snazzy suits.”

Reflecting on the character of grad class, Funk uses the phrase “still waters run deep”.

“We’ve categorized them as the strong silent type,” she details. “They are a dedicated, committed, and very talented group, but they are also very quiet and humble about it.”

Quiet as they may be, Valedictorian Graham Pinkerton says soft-spokenness does not prevent his classmates from getting along.

“Living in the same small community, I think we all know each other well,” he explains. “Most of us have been here our whole lives so we have a social connection that has been there for a long time.”

Pinkerton feels his teachers have done a good job at maintaining and facilitating those relationships despite the social-distancing and remote learning necessitated by the presence of the coronavirus. Irritating though it was, Pinkerton believes COVID-19 can be viewed as an agent of improvement.

“This pandemic has been tough for a lot of people but coming out on the other side of this we are stronger than we ever were before. Now we can take on challenges that we once thought were impossible because we are better equipped for the job.”