The Sedona-Oak Creek School District held its graduation ceremony for the Class of 2024 on the athletic field at Sedona Red Rock High School on the evening of Wednesday, May 22.

For a full photo gallery of the graduation ceremony click here.

Eighty-eight Sedona Red Rock High School and eight Red Rock Academy students received their high school diplomas during the event.

Andrea Alvarez Araiza, Skyla Bird, Leila Bradley, Juan Gonzalez Carvajal, Isabella Griffin, Michael Haberland Granger, Anna Jennings, Isaac Montes de Oca Garcia, Lauren Pfaff and Ava Witte also earned their associate’s degrees from Yavapai College as part of the second cohort of SOCSD’s early college program.

“This class has achieved in many ways, in sports and arts, in the community and in academics,” SRRHS Principal Heather Isom said. “This year Sedona Red Rock achieved great success in sports. The varsity softball team was named 2024 2A Metro Conference Regional Champions. One of our graduating seniors Anna Jennings was named Player of the Year.”

Isom also praised the performance of the varsity track team’s 400-meter relay team, which included Ramon Betancourt, Carlos Gonzalez Montes, Ben Metzger and Chokyi Carstens and placed second at the state meet, as well as Lelia Bradley breaking the school record for the javelin twice over and the boys’ golf team taking second place at the regional championships.

Isom also referred to Alexis Bogatyrew representing SOCSD at the Poetry Out Loud competition and Soyoka Yabuuchi’s animated film that she created for her Advanced Placement Research course, which is currently under consideration for the 2025 Sedona International Film Festival.

“We’ve also seen tremendous success in academics,” Isom said. “AP Capstone students demonstrated their critical thinking, research, collaboration and presentation skills in AP seminar research. And in addition succeeded in four or more other courses. They are truly of course to be reckoned with, and are candidates for the Capstone diploma. They are … Jenna Bogda, Maxwell Jankowski, Bryce Kirk, Arabella Licher, Ashley Stewart, Soyoka Yabuuchi. We also have two candidates for the capstone certificate: Lauren Pfaff and Dartagnan Vargas.”

Joan Diaz Rodriguez received the 2024 SRRHS Super Kind award.

“[Diaz Rodriguez’s] acts of kindness have literally changed the course of another person’s life and I don’t think any of you know, and I’m not going to tell you,” Isom said. “When I began to investigate [Diaz Rodriguez] as a recipient of this kindness award, I was astounded by the comments that were made. He is described as one who offers kindness to everyone. He sets an example for others continually by extending kindness and friendship, to many who feel alone. One teacher wrote, ‘His aspect is always gentle and unforced; he quietly aids others in classroom activities, not to self-aggrandize, but rather to truly help his peers. His eyes twinkle when others do well.’”

The student’s choice for faculty speaker was math teacher Jim Vogler, who offered up anecdotes of his experiences with the graduates.

“I say these moments because you left a mark on me and this place,” Vogler said. “You are legends. You will be missed but you won’t be forgotten.”

“I waited until the very last minute to finally write my speech, because how do you begin to tell the people you’ve known your whole life ‘goodbye’?” Student Body President Citlali Perez Perez said. “I want you to look around your fellow classmates and find your best friends. Take a moment to appreciate them because not all of us will be lucky enough to meet again.”

“It feels like just yesterday we were freaking out about starting high school and every embarrassing thing that comes along with being an underclassman,” Senior Class President Sarina McCullough said. “At other schools you can’t have one-on-one time with any teacher whenever you need help. You don’t have an amazing office lady like [Teresa] Lamparter to force you to fill every scholarship known to man. You don’t have teachers like [Karyl] Goldsmith, who somehow managed to outdo the entire school when it comes to spirit weeks … They’re all examples of how lucky we are to have been taught by some remarkable people.”

“Time, it’s such a funny thing,” valedictorian Arabella Licher said in her speech. “I, along with the majority of my senior class, I’m sure, have found myself stuck in the perpetual loop of wishing for it to go faster. For the days be shorter, for the hours to final bell to be closer yet here I am on the stage wishing I had a little longer … Entering into this next stage of my life has been quite daunting, as I’m finding myself lamenting the loss of everything that was. But I’ve come to realize that this is not an ending, but a continuation of our story and the start of a new beginning.