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Congrats to the Class of 2023—“The Last OGs”
In an informal poll of seniors, Salutatorian Elliana McKinney suggested “The Last OGs” as a tagline for the Class of 2023. “We were only there briefly during the first part of our freshman year, but we are the very last DLSNC students to start our Knight experience at the old Kenton building,” shared Elliana. It has been a high school experience with many twists and turns—the Covid pandemic and the move to our permanent home—for the 60 members of the Class of 2023. Their commencement ceremony on June 3 was a joyous celebration of all their achievements through the past four years.
The ceremony also included a truly historic moment for Knight Nation; after opening our doors 22 years ago, we cheered our 1,000th graduate across the stage! There are now 1,042 DLSNC alumni showing the world all that a Knight can do with a powerful education.
Click here to watch highlights of the event. At graduation, four valedictorians —Rakyah Clayton, Dayona Gaither, Jada Monk, and Jonas Noel, Jr.—shared meaningful addresses, followed by a keynote speech from Board of Trustees Member, Jonna Frater '06. Click here for the students' speeches and here for the keynote speech. In addition, the following awards were announced:
The Faith Award: Mary Kim
The Gerald Bitz Service Award: Liz León Esparza
The Community Award: Deng Ajak, Evelyn Velez
The St. Joseph the Worker Award: Evelyn Velez
The De La Salle Award: Deng Ajak
Click here for more photos from Commencement 2023.
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Academic Honor Societies at DLSNC
The San Miguel Chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS) inducted 25 seniors for the graduating class of 2023 —more than 40% of the class. These students met the rigorous chapter requirements and were officially inducted at our Senior Presentation Award Ceremony. To be honored as an NHS member, a candidate must meet a high academic standard (cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above) and be a person of character by demonstrating leadership and service throughout their high school experience. Our members have displayed remarkable commitment and resilience and were distinguished at graduation with gold and blue NHS honor cords. Also announced officially at the Senior Presentation was the induction of eight members of the Class of 2023 into the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica (SHH), an academic honor society focused on Spanish language excellence. To become a member, a student must meet a high academic standard specifically in their Spanish classes in addition to a high average in their combined classes. In order to fulfill the required service component of benefiting the Spanish-speaking community, members offer Spanish tutoring to other students through the Academic Resource Center. At graduation, the eight SHH inductees wore the Sociedad's gold and red honor cords.
Click here for lists of the members of the Class of 2023 in our two honor societies.
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Kindra Young de Gomez Named Lasallian Educator of the Year at School End
Every year DLSNC recognizes the Lasallian Educator of the Year, selected by secret ballot from all faculty and staff. The award is given to the individual who most embodies the 12 Lasallian values (gravity, silence, humility, prudence, wisdom, patience, reserve, gentleness, zeal, vigilance, piety, generosity).
Kindra Young de Gomez, World Languages Department Chair, was named the 2023 Lasallian Educator of the Year and accepted the medal at the Senior Presentation. Afterward, Ms. Young, who has taught Spanish at DLSNC for nine years, shared, “I’m humbled, and I’m grateful for the recognition from my colleagues. This is the school that I would have loved to have attended myself as a student. All of the Lasallian principles—faith, service, community—they have become a part of my personal life as well as my professional life. When I’m here, it’s like being at home.”
Which of the 12 Lasallian values does Ms. Young most embody? Anyone who has ever interacted with her would have no trouble guessing—zeal!
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The End of an Era as Leslie Porter Retires
Disbelief, tears, laughter, and more tears took place at the end-of-school-year celebration in which faculty and staff honored Leslie Porter who has been associated with DLSNC since its opening day. Ms. Porter’s son, Daniel, was the valedictorian of DLSNC’s first class, and, since 2001, she has served the school in many ways, first as a parent volunteer, then as a part-time staff member in the Development department, then as Registrar, and finally as the President’s Assistant and HR Coordinator. It is hard to imagine this community without Ms. Porter, but she is most deserving of a relaxing retirement. Particularly because this is her second stab at retiring—the last attempt in 2018 lasted about a month before she graciously agreed to return to the school to fill the President’s Assistant role.
At the June 14th celebration Ms. Porter received 22 roses, symbolizing her 22 years of service, each with a heartfelt tribute from a colleague. She was lauded for many qualities that day —her gentle presence, her vast institutional knowledge, her generous listening abilities and spiky sense of humor, her cheerful Google bitmoji, her generous sharing of snacks and gum with students, her unfailing patience, for being a rock, an angel, and the school’s GOAT (greatest of all time). That’s just a small sampling of the many accolades; the love and appreciation for Ms. Porter flowed freely that day, and she will be missed immensely.
Click here for more on Ms. Porter.
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Question of the Month
How many events take place annually to celebrate the graduating seniors?
a) Three
b) Five
c) Four
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