Edison High graduates feel charged up after receiving diplomas
Jenny Kottman spent four years in Edison High School’s Center For International Business and Communication Studies program.
She learned about innovation. Her senior project was to create a business, and she launched J Kott Collections, featuring handcrafted jewelry organizers.
The future Cal Baptist business major appreciated, then, the uniqueness of the Chargers’ drive-through on-campus graduation Thursday.
Honoring this year’s graduating seniors from high schools in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, Laguna Beach and other parts of Orange County.
Kottman, her parents, three of her cousins and her cousin’s husband entered in a white Jeep. It was decorated with green and yellow balloons to celebrate.
“I actually like that part of the drive-through graduation, to have my family go through that with me and celebrate and make the whole thing upbeat is really cool,” said Kottman, a four-year pole vaulter for the track team. “It’s probably less hot than sitting in the sun for three hours.”
Edison graduated 489 seniors during the ceremony. Shannon Stolaruk, who played varsity girls’ tennis for four years, was another one of them.
Stolaruk participated in the Academy of Sustainability in Engineering for all four years. Working on cool science projects should suit her well for her next stop, as she will major in biology at UC Irvine.
Stolaruk went to the drive-through ceremony with her mother Kazumi, father Randy and 12-year-old brother, Kai. Both of the family’s dogs, Tucker and Dewey, also were in attendance dressed in little cap-and-gown outfits.
She planned to attend a gathering with fellow graduates after leaving campus.
“It should be pretty safe,” she said. “I think we’ll be wearing masks and trying to keep our distance and whatnot. It’ll be fun to see friends.”
Sean Fajardo said he appreciated being in the Chargers’ basketball program for four years, including two years as a varsity guard.
“We’re all one family,” Fajardo said.
He added that he looked forward to a post-graduation dinner with several of his classmates, including Kate Davies, Nicole Field, Abby McCollam, Dylan Delaney, Ian Schilling and Jacob Shapiro, as well as their families.
As she moves forward, Kottman classified being in the class of 2020 as an interesting experience.
“I wouldn’t say that it was easy, but I would say that you can find beautiful things in any stage of life,” she said. “Going through COVID for my class, I’d say we learned how to have life be slower, which was a huge blessing. This is a generation that schedules event after event, practice after practice. To be able to have time to just be with our family … has been such a blessing. I’m definitely going to try to implement that into my life more.”
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