A parking lot and living room graduation for the Mercer Island Class of 2020
Mercer Island High School graduating seniors (from left to right) Isabel Funk, Annie Poole, and Elizabeth Gottesman dance to music on a Mercer Island dock on June 8, 2020, the evening before graduation. Instead of a senior graduation party, attended by many, these seniors spent the time together as a smaller group.
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff
Oh the places you’ll go! On Zoom, in your living room...
Graduation is a time of great fanfare in the United States, but this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, students had to find other ways to celebrate.
RadioActive’s Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff documented their graduation from Mercer Island High School for KUOW, chronicling intimate moments with friends, as well as the logistics of a drive-through graduation.
Annie Poole, right, who is graduating from Mercer Island High School, shares a photo with her friend, and fellow senior, Elizabeth Gottesman, left, as gifts are exchanged on June 8, 2020. For Poole, “graduation— including the day before — felt like a moment of celebration in the midst of a year that seemed never-ending.”
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff
From left to right, Elizabeth Gottesman, Annie Poole, Isabel Funk, and Lila Shroff pose for a traditional graduation photo— but with masks on June 8, 2020. Poole wears a Black Lives Matters mask— a testament to the complex turmoil of the country high school seniors find themselves graduating into.
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal
On June 9, 2020, Mercer Island High School Graduation Day, Associate Principal Nick Wold, left, and Principal Vicki Puckett dance in the parking lot as they wait for cars to arrive as part of the drive-through graduation. “Hit the Road Jack” blasts from the speakers as Wold and Puckett celebrate seeing their senior students for the first time in months.
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff
A mosaic of Mercer Island High School seniors’ pictures is on display as cars pass while in line for the drive-through graduation on June 9, 2020. The senior portraits parallel the two-dimensional interactions students have had over video conferencing for the majority of their second semester.
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff
Graduating senior Danny Scalzo adjusts his cap as his family cheers him on from a van on June 9, 2020. Along with an abnormal graduation, Scalzo, a varsity lacrosse player, dealt with a spring season cut short. For many seniors, the feeling of loss was particularly pronounced in their extracurricular experiences, where students have developed meaningful relationships and practiced their passions.
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff
Lauren Louie, left, and Amy Maeda, right, lean out their decorated car to photograph senior Nicole Hibi graduating on stage on June 9, 2020. With the drive-through graduation came the opportunity to recognize seniors with personalized, and sometimes extravagant, decor. Trends included chalk paint, balloons and photo prints.
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff
Graduating senior Hailey Vandenbosch smiles as she waits for her name to be announced, before walking onto the makeshift stage to receive her diploma sleeve on June 9, 2020. Given the “circumstances and the short amount of time…to plan the ceremony,” Vandenbosch thought the drive-through graduation was “‘much more personalized” than normal.
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff
A family combats the rain with umbrellas in their convertible as they watch their senior graduate on a makeshift stage at Mercer Island High School on June 9, 2020.
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff
Lila Shroff, a senior at Mercer Island High School, and her family, gather in the basement of their home for the virtual portion of the graduation ceremony on Tuesday, June 9, 2020. Pictured are Shroff’s cousin, Sidh Shroff, her uncle, Sharat Shroff, her mother, Sarah Ford, and her grandmother, Savitri Shyam. Despite the nontraditional format of the virtual ceremony, Shroff enjoyed the unique opportunity to watch the speeches together with her family.
KUOW photo/Lila Shroff
Following the virtual graduation ceremony, Annie Poole, a graduate of Mercer Island High School Class of 2020, lays in her bedroom listening to her Spotify playlist titled “I’m going to college!” Instead of the celebratory parties that typically follow the graduation ceremony, Poole found herself using this time to reflect. For Poole, “graduation was definitely memorable, yet anti-climactic at the same time,” because it felt like “high school never had real closure.”
KUOW photo/Meghana Kakubal and Lila Shroff
This photo essay was created by advanced participants of KUOW's RadioActive program for young people, with production support from Lila Lakehart. Edited by Isolde Raftery.
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