Twin Rivers High School celebrated the graduation of its senior Class of 2024 Saturday afternoon at the Black River Coliseum in Poplar Bluff.
Surrounded by family and friends, 48 seniors received their diplomas and considered their next steps in life, be it university, community college, vocational training, jobs or military service.
Twin Rivers Principal Mike Berry presided over the event, which included reading the graduates’ names as they crossed the stage, and finally giving them the go-ahead to celebrate by throwing their caps into the air.
Superintendent Robert Brown was the first speaker of the ceremony. Brown offered the graduates two pieces of advice: 1. Be resilient, as they would certainly face challenges in the years ahead; and 2. Take risks in order to discover what makes them happy in life.
The Class of 2024 featured co-valedictorians, Brooke Kok and Alissa Stanley, both of whom earned perfect 11.0 grade point averages. The salutatorian was Brett Robards.
Kok’s address offered thanks to all those who had helped the graduates to this point — friends, family and classmates. Stanley praised her fellow graduates as “talented, intelligent, hard-working people.”
Robards offered this humorous take on his honor: “We are always learning something new; for example, I just learned how to pronounce ‘salutatorian.’” He graduated with a 10.94 GPA.
Much of the ceremony focused on scholarship winners, which comprised 40 members of the class. College and career counselor Anna Whitlow, who presided over the scholarship awards, announced the total value of this year’s scholarships presented was almost $593,000.
The Twin Rivers High School Class of 2024’s class motto is, “You just gotta keep livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N,” by actor Matthew McConaughey. The class color is hot pink, the class song is “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the class flower is the sunflower.