The audience of ISLAND PACIFIC ACADEMY middle school students was abuzz during their first Town Hall of the year on August 23, 2017. Among the masses was IPA’s class of 2022, the current eighth graders, sitting patiently on the sides. They would soon pledge an oath to the school that would last for the rest of the year.
The eighth grade pledge that each student undertook affirmed each student’s dedication to setting a role-model for the younger grades, and served as a reminder that the eighth graders, as leaders in the school, would be exemplary examples of the Five Agreements for their peers to follow.
During the ceremony, each eighth grader was called up on stage by name to receive a symbolic Ring Pop from Mr. Steven Caley, Secondary Principal, and Mrs. Michelle Bradley, Secondary Vice Principal.
One group of these eighth graders took on the task of leading and organizing the Town Hall. Taylor Horita and Meta Bradley both served as Masters of Ceremony for the event, while Ellis Tscha and Amelia Mullen put together a brief slideshow documenting the graduating class’s communal moments together. Rain Eldakhakni, Murphy Boksanski, Nicholas Peralta, and Colin Kent helped to organize the Multi-Purpose Room’s layout, while Cooper Hinderer and Natalia Rompel led the eighth graders in singing the school’s alma mater. Finally, Tristee Aki helped to conduct the eighth graders during the school oli, and Ryan Corpuz delivered a speech to the eighth graders on the changes the class had undergone throughout their journey in middle school.
This group of eighth graders is the second class to have participated in such a ceremony, the first being the class of 2021, ISLAND PACIFIC ACADEMY’s current ninth graders.
(This article was written and contributed by Mr. Ryan Corpuz, ’22).