Saxony ‘perseveres’ to reach graduation day

Saxony Lutheran High School senior Samuel Bonney was quite fond of quoting Principal Mark Ruark periodically throughout the year with one saying.
“You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
That was one of the messages that Ruark imparted on the Class of 2021 during their graduation ceremony on Sunday in the Gerhard Birk Gymnasium.
Ruark choked up as he said good-bye to 47 seniors as they gathered together for the last time.
“God has much plannedfor you as you move on from Saxony,” Ruark said in his opening remarks of the ceremony. “You have left your principal with many indelible memories that I will cherish forever.”
After having a later-than-normal ceremony for the 2020 class last June, Saxony’s commencement returned to a sense of normalcy this year, as there were no COVID-19 restrictions for the ceremony. Ruark praised the class for their perseverance throughout the school year, including when the school did away with its mask mandate in April and did not miss a single day for quarantine.
“This senior class has been through two school years that have been unlike any other and have faced more adversity than most,” Ruark said. “The senior class came into the school year more determined than ever to have a normal year. With their faith in God they have persevered to see this day.”
Senior Brock Engert and Senior Class President Sydney Turner both addressed the audience and class of graduates as is customary during ceremonies, but not as valedictorian and salutatorian. Instead, students were given honor cords to signify the Latin distinction of their grade point average: summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude . A total of 33 students graduated with honors.
Summa Cum Laude graduates (3.75-4.0 GPA) were Paul Adams, Megan Benkendorf, Gavin Boehme, Savannah Cork, Brock Engert Alec Horn, Tanner, King, Joel Koenig, Maddox Murphy, Seth Sievers, Skyler Soto, Zachary Thieret, Abigail Thomason, Sydney Turner, and Carson Williams.

Magna Cum Lude graduates (3.50-3.74) were Mattison Bowyer, Eli Brown, William Brown, Andrew Buxton, Cody Griggs, Alice Hogendobler, Lane Koenig, Will LeDure, Quinn Steffens.
Cum Laude graduates (3.25-3.49) were Kevin Britton, Benjamin Judkins, Tate Kester, Abby Ruehling, Bayley Thompson, Brandon Thurm, and Keagen Winkler.
Distinguished graduates (3.00-3.24) were Stacie Bengert and Seth James.
Those weren’t the only accomplishments that Ruark pointed out to the seniors. The class had 85 percent of the class earn and accept at least one scholarship, that number is the highest in the 21-year history of the school. The seniors earned more than $1.1 million in scholarship money.
Those impressive numbers would make sense to Engert, who spoke to the class about how much the students in the 2021 class have stuck together.
“No one student in this class is greater than the whole,” Engert said. “They will see our classes’ spirit through our acts of service, and through the way we treat those around us.”
Commencement speaker Becky Wichern, math teacher at Saxony Lutheran and 2020 Jackson Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year left the students with one message through “the Chaos Theory,” a math theory stating that, within the apparent randomness of systems, there are underlying patterns.
She noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has the most effect on those ages 18-30, because it has created added stress to those choices that prospective college students are already making.
“It really doesn’t matter where you start the game, whether it’s outside the game or not,” Wichern said. “The point is to keep playing the game. You may veer off course and go outside the triangle, but if you keep playing the game the right way, those mistakes won’t matter on the next move as long as you keep moving in the same direction. You don’t have to stress about your choices, you give them to God and let Him stress about them.”