This month, the class of 2011 will clean out their lockers, say goodbye to favorite teachers and eventually walk their way across the stage to collect their diplomas.
But before the hustle and bustle of graduation season begins, coordinators of the annual baccalaureate ceremony hope the students and their families will come for a time of reflection at 6 p.m. Sunday, May 22, at the high school, 4250 Rt. 71.
Youth Director Sam Perkins, a coordinator of the event, said the ceremony “gets the students together in one place, one last time.”
“Not to give them what they’ve earned --i.e. graduation--but to just love on them, to present them with a space to reflect on where they’ve been, who they were, who they are becoming, what will possibly face them in the next season of their lives,” he said. “And how their love, the love of others, and the love of God can and will sustain them.”
Other coordinators include Oswego High School’s senior class officers and Oswego Young Life.
Jim Hollendoner, the college and young-adult pastor from Crossroads Community Church will be delivering the message. The ceremony will also include scripture passage readings and a brief meditation on them by class officers, a selection of music played and sung by students, two original poems written and read by students, and a brief message of encouragement from one of the area youth workers.
A time of silence will be held to remember lost classmates and faculty. This year, Ruth Culbertson, 65, a Kendall County Cooperative social worker and counselor who was housed in the high school’s Student Services Department, will be remembered. She died in March.
While attendance at the annual baccalaureate graduation ceremony has grown over the past few years, Perkins is hopeful to see even more in Sunday’s crowd.
“I sincerely believe it does and has even more potential to inspire our young people to prepare for the next season of their lives and claim the strength of character, both spiritually and otherwise, that has been built up in them for the past 18 years,” he said.
Perkins and other event coordinators encourage the graduates “to be who they were created to be as children of God and to stride into and through tomorrow with the knowledge that they are loved and prayed for and empowered and commissioned by Christ.
“We hope that the students find inspiration in the understanding that they are surrounded by a multitude of people who want them to succeed and want them to experience life to the fullest through the joy that knowing Jesus provides,” Perkins said.
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