Arcadia High School’s Class of 2021 Graduates In Person

 

Arcadia High School's Class of 2021 had the opportunity to graduate in person at the historic Santa Anita Race Track.

 

A sea of red caps and gowns painted Arcadia High School’s first in-person graduation since the COVID-19 pandemic. Wistful, joyous looks mixed with reflective, pensive gazes; the seniors, who began as bubbly, fresh-eyed elementary students now looked towards the final sunset of their journey—the over-a-decade long road through Arcadia Unified School District’s (AUSD) elementary, middle, and high schools had finally reached its end.

Every year, graduation from Arcadia High School comes with relief, great happiness, and, of course, great accomplishment. This year, however, all of these feelings were magnified because of the extra obstacles the seniors faced throughout the year. Finally, on June 4, the former seniors of Arcadia High School had the opportunity to gather together and graduate in front of their teachers, school administration, family, and friends.

 

Spread over over the expanse of the grandstands, graduates' families and friends were able to cheer their seniors on in person at Santa Anita Park.

“Graduation meant so much to me because our entire class was able to celebrate together, in person,” said Arcadia High’s Class of 2021 valedictorian, Rachel Loh. She noted that graduation was especially sweet because of how few regularly scheduled senior activities her class was able to participate in as a result of spending nearly two years in a distance learning environment. Seniors missed out on so much, including normal, everyday acts, like walking by and waving at friends in the hallways during school.

Loh noted one of her greatest challenges throughout high school was finding balance between academics, extracurriculars, and mental wellness. To combat such struggles, Loh urged students to “take time for yourself” as “good mental health is essential to your well-being and your attitude towards others.” For instance, Loh would take Friday nights off, utilizing the time to solely relax and have fun.

 

Rachel Loh, the Valedictorian for the class of 2021, standing next to Arcadia High Counselor Andrew Poon, will attend MIT next school year.

“They [the graduating seniors] have taught me so much about thinking on the fly and adapting to different situations,” said Arcadia High’s senior class counselor, Mr. Poon. At Arcadia High School, class counselors move up each grade with their respective class, so Mr. Poon spent the last four years with the Class of 2021, giving him deep insight into the struggles and accomplishments of these seniors.

Despite the challenges of learning through the pandemic, Arcadia High students persevered, with a final average GPA of 3.47 amongst all 774 graduating seniors. An additional 117 salutatorians were awarded for achieving an overall unweighted GPA of 3.933 or higher, meaning no more than two “B” grades throughout all four years of high school. To view the full list of salutatorians, click here. The Class of 2021 also applied to almost 400 different colleges, with 6,748 total applications sent. 

 

Next fall, Loh and a fellow Arcadia High student will attend school at MIT. Aside from MIT, a total of 16 students were accepted to Ivy League Schools; most notable was Cornell, where six seniors were accepted. Additionally 70 students—nearly one-tenth of the graduating class—were accepted into UC Berkeley, with four students accepted to neighboring university Stanford. Here is more information pertaining to colleges about the graduated seniors.

 

To watch the entire graduation ceremony, as livestreamed by Arcadia High’s Apache News team, click here. For photos from the big day, visit Arcadia Unified’s Facebook page. To learn more about Arcadia High School, visit ahs.ausd.net.