Fusion Academy of Huntington Beach’s Inaugural Graduation Ceremony

Kevin Reilly and Brendan Wangberg

Generally, attending a high school or college graduation can be a mixed bag of emotions.  For the mothers, it’s often all-consuming love, with a dusting of nostalgia as they watch their child gain yet one more degree of independence.  For the fathers, it’s a sense of pride and achievement for having protected their little boy or girl on their long journey to reaching adulthood.  For the little sibling, it’s simply the longest two hours of their life.

As a teacher, I’ve grown accustomed to attending graduations, three of which I’ve attended this past spring.  My sister graduated from Boise State University with her degree in Music Education in May.  The event occurred on a Saturday morning at the Taco Bell Arena in Boise, Idaho.  Thousands of graduates stood on display before even thousands more family and friends, as they slowly trickled their way to the front of the stage to be briskly handed their diploma and have their face momentarily exposed on the Jumbotron. For an event that was destined to last several hours, it seemed bizarre to watch the organizers futilely attempt to rush the graduates along.   In addition to my sister’s graduation, I also attended the graduation of my girlfriend’s sister a couple of weeks later.  She received her degree in Radio-TV-Film from Cal State Fullerton, who had so many graduates that semester that she decided to skip the main ceremony and only attend the smaller ceremony within the College of Communications.  It was held outside on the Cal State Fullerton campus, and after a couple of hours and a dozen self-deprecating jokes about the worthlessness of the degree they were all receiving, it was over.  Much like my sister’s graduation, it was what we’ve come to expect in a graduation ceremony: a nice, but largely impersonal event.

The third graduation that I attended this spring was for the Fusion Academy of Huntington Beach.  As a newer campus with a still budding enrollment, going into the event I was expecting many things:  It was going to be small (three graduates, two of which were in attendance).  It was not going to have paid speakers.  It was not going to have an immense stage.  And it most certainly was not going to have a Jumbotron.

But something occurred at our ceremony that I’ve never experienced before at a graduation: a sense of unity.  When was the last graduation you attended (outside of Fusion) where every student knew every other student and teacher and administrator in attendance?  When was the last graduation you attended where every parent knew the name of each of their child’s teachers?  Or all of the teachers knowing every student, even if they’ve never had them in a class?  When was the last graduation you attended when a seemingly inside joke during a speech garnered laughs from the majority of the audience?

Despite having a small handful of graduates and only dozens in attendance, Fusion Academy of Huntington Beach had something that no other school could accomplish with their graduation ceremony: a palpable feeling of love and family.

Chad Fisher

English/History Teacher and Mentor