There’s a palpable sadness among students at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. It’s not only the letdown over not having a commencement ceremony. Seniors also wish they had a way to say goodbye to teachers and classmates.
There’s a palpable sadness among students at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. It’s not only the letdown over not having a commencement ceremony. Seniors also wish they had a way to say goodbye to teachers and classmates.
Ben Hamer felt the last day of school it was important to wish others well. It’s left him “sad about that because I had a lot of friends at school that I might not hang out with in the summer.”
John Russell said the last week of class allowed him to say goodbye through their Google Classroom sessions, but “it’s not the same” as a real goodbye.
“It’s extremely disappointing that we won’t get to have that passage, but at the same time I understand that there is a pandemic going on, so it’s definitely not possible for us all to be together right now,” said Brianna Bridges.
H-F administrators decided a virtual graduation May 31 would have to suffice, but they promised the Class of 2020 that a special recognition event for the 657 graduates would be held at a later date to mark the culmination of their four years.
Despite the disappointment, students are leaving with great memories of their times at H-F.
Bridges, president of the H-F National Honor Society chapter, said her favorite memory will be “when I went to Germany with the orchestra my sophomore year. It was amazing!” She started playing violin in fourth grade at Flossmoor Hills School, and was a member of H-F’s orchestra all four years.
Bridges, daughter of Alford and Michele Bridges of Flossmoor, was part of the International Baccalaureate Program. Focusing on academics got her a special admission into Brown University’s Liberal Medical Education Program. Over the next eight years, she will earn a bachelor’s degree and go through medical school. She wants to focus on public health.
“The field of public health has always been interesting to me,” she said. “I probably realized it in my economics class my junior year. I loved economics and I thought it was interesting how health plays into it. I thought that public health is the intersection of life sciences and social sciences like economics and it just seems like a really cool field to go into, especially now when I can help a lot of people and I can understand what’s going on more deeply.”
Rebecca Brandt took on the role of director of Operation Snowball, a support program that encourages student decisions to avoid drugs and alcohol. Her first experience as a freshman helped her move out of her introvert shell and learn to enjoy meeting others. During that first Snowball encounter her small group leader had all 10 students engaged.
“Watching her lead the group and influence everybody that way, we all left feeling really amazing afterward. It was really inspirational to see that one person in the group could make that kind of impact on people in that short amount of time, so I wanted to do that,” Brandt said. The group also worked to encourage a sense of community at H-F.
She also was on the frosh/soph softball team, did gymnastics for three years, was a member of National Honor Society and the Viking choir and ensemble. The daughter of Angela and John Brandt of Homewood will be majoring in nursing at St. Louis University.
Hamer spent four years honing skills at Viking TV. His senior year he was an executive producer. His work also won special recognition in various contests. A 10-minute sports documentary on senior Tre Hondras, who is hoping to be drafted by a major league baseball team, won Hamer and Jon Kriarakis the top award in the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Upper-Midwest competition. The documentary has made it into the final round of We Make Movies International Film Festival.
He also was an outside midfielder on the H-F soccer team for four years, and was involved in DECA. His project this year dealt with marketing and merchandising and was selected for state competition, but that round was canceled when schools shut down.
Hamer, the son of Lawrence Hamer and Sonnie Birch of Homewood, will be using his VTV experiences as a film and television production major at DePaul University.
Russell has been reflecting on living through history. He’s certain future textbooks will talk about the pandemic. If anyone asks what he did during this time, he will recall how schools were closed, classes went to e-learning and there were no graduation ceremonies.
But he had great times at H-F as a member of the Mock Trial team, working at VTV and playing tennis for H-F a few years. As a member of the National Honor Society, he worked on promotional videos this year for the Dr. Martin Luther King Day of Service event.
Russell, the son of Felicia and John Russell of Flossmoor, will be enrolled at the University of Southern California as a communications major. He hopes the university opens for fall classes.
Graduation day is approaching, but there are no definite plans for celebrations. Bridges said her mom is organizing a drive-by parade to mark her special day.
“I have relatives calling and saying congratulations,” Russell said. “They’re telling me every day about how proud they are of me and what I was able to accomplish in high school. I appreciate that.”