Bellarmine Graduation

Bellarmine College Preparatory held its Commencement Ceremony at 5:00pm on May 28, 2021. The graduation of  Class of 2021 seniors followed a Baccalaureate Mass on the evening of May 27, with both events taking place on the San Jose campus.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, only two people per senior were allowed to be present in person, and each person had to have a valid ticket. 

Inna and I attended the ceremony and were seated at our assigned seats in Row 13, Seat 783, 784. We had to wear masks during the whole graduation ceremony.

Processional

During the processional, all graduating seniors walked from the football field to their seats in front of the stage. Inna and I were seated north of the stage (directly into the sun) and had difficulty seeing the stage. Many seniors wore leis and scarves around their necks, but Alex didn't care about them (though Inna was ready to purchase one for $45).

Master of Ceremonies... Mr. Chris Meyercord

Mr. Chris Meyercord began the program with a short prayer and a discussion of the many challenges that Bellarmine seniors had encountered during their past year (due to COVID-19 restrictions).

Welcome, and Invocation... Ian da Silva

Ian da Silva, the Cardinal Bellarmine Award winner of the class of 2021, gave a short speech about his past 4 years at Bellarmine.

National Anthem... Ajay Mallya

Ajay played a jazz-improvised version of the United States of America National Anthem on the violin. Ajay will be attending the famous Juilliard Musical School in New York City.

Principal's Remarks... Mrs. Kristina Luscher

Mrs. Luscher talked about the challenges of learning using Zoom and the difficulty of hosting sporting events and practices. She was very proud of the class of 2021.

Despite the COVID-19 issues, many Bellarmine athletes achieved outstanding results on track (4x1600 relay), tennis, and soccer teams. The Speech & Debate qualified for the National tournament for the first time ever.

Alex participated in Speech & Debate.

Conferral of Major Awards...Mrs. Kristina Luscher

Mrs. Luscher talked about the multiple award winners.

Valedictory Address...Ashok Ramkumar

Ashok, the Bellarmine Class of 2021, will be heading to Georgetown to study International History. he talked about the challenges of COVID-19 classes.

Conferral of Diplomas... Mrs Kristina Luscher andMr. Chris Meyercord

During this portion, Alex walked on stage to receive his diploma. I could barely see him (he was so far away), and I had to use my Canon EF 70-200 zoom lens to capture his image. Bellarmine should have set up large projector screens so that we could see the conferral of diplomas to graduates.

President's Remarks...Mr. Chris Meyercord

Benediction...Ft. Gerald T. Wade, S.J.

Recessional

After the program ended, all graduates walked onto the Football Field. We briefly returned to our car to pick up a tripod and Inna's shoes and then looked for Alex on the football field. It was hard to find him, as the field was overflowing with graduates and their families. We called Alex on the cell phone and eventually found him.

Alex was jubilant, and we congratulated him and took many photos of him and his close Bellarmine friends.

 Go Bells!

We are proud of Alex's achievements at Bellarmine. Here is a close-up photo of his High School Diploma:

 After graduation, we drove for our graduation dinner at The Plumed Horse (a Michelin 1-star restaurant in Saratoga).

Returning home at 10:30pm, we presented the following graduation gifts:

• Apple MacBook Air M1 512GB SSD (returned for a newer model)
• A custom green graduation troll
  
• Fleur de Cocoa "Paris" Graduation Cake (presented one week later due to Alex's surfing trip to San Luis Obispo)
  

 

The custom Fleur de Cocoa graduation cake was incredibly delicious! "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"