Soda Springs Class of 2024

Soda Springs High School joined North Gem High School last week as both schools celebrated the last moments of the seniors’ high school careers in fine style.  

The audience was officially welcomed to the event by Makaylie Petterborg, Student Body President.  

The Valedictorian’s address was given by Benjamin Beutler, who opened by thanking, first of all, secretary Ann Poulsen “without whom the school would cease to function.”  He noted that everyone was sad to see her leave, but excited to see her start the next chapter of her life.  He thanked superintendent Scott Muir and Principal Jess McMurray—“they both have amazing personalities, and I encourage future students to get to know them.”

Beutler also thanked the many other teachers, staff, and administrators at SSHS who had helped make the students’ journeys possible, including special shout outs to Jeff Horsley, Kim Mumford, Bryan Jensen, Jeff Uskoski and seminary teacher brother Hayes.  

“All right guys, we did it—we graduated!  And guess what…it was really hard.  Really hard.  If I had to describe my high school experience, I’d recite these lyrics from a song called ‘The Town Inside Me’.  ‘The town inside me, and everyone's voice/ Only I'm not there, just watching from afar.’  Let’s break it down….we each have our own town inside us we try to control, but many voices and people keep pushing and shoving us in many different directions. It gets to the point where we feel we have no control over our lives, which leads us to the second set of lyrics.  As we stick with the flow, we start to realize that we are watching parts of our world rise and crumble, sometimes without our influence.  Our life has been a roller coaster of emotions. Entering the next stage of our life, many of us ask ourselves ‘who am I?  Who is concealed behind some other sport or activity?  The time has come for these questions to be answered.  We may be surprised by the answers that come.  Few of us will be successful at or even participate in the extracurricular activities we did.”

“It is time to take on the greatest challenge of our lives—self-discovery.  I have faith that each of us will rise up and find the courage to try new things and develop ourselves.  I encourage the class of 2024 to make good habits and break bad habits right now.  Ask any of your elders—the older you get, the harder it is to create good habits.  I promise that you each can and will discover yourselves, scout’s honor.  We are a class above others, but there is opportunity to improve.  If there wasn’t, I know I wouldn’t still be going to college.  

There is still time to shine and make the world a better place.  We are the future entrepreneurs, scientists, and performers and artists each in our own individual ways.  If anyone questions your ability to change the world, make them hear you, and when they hear you the Class of 2024 and I will be near you.”

  Salutatorian Quinten Hansen followed.  He also thanked all those who had helped him on the way.  Then confessed that “I brainstormed a speech last night, and hopefully, like all the other assignments I’ve procrastinated, I’ll finish it with a passing grade!”

“First thing to keep in mind is the reason I kept trying so hard at everything—not just athletically but academically.  I wanted to be a part of everything, and I wanted to be good at it too.  But I wondered why. Why did I go to every class, every practice, and try to show up at everything?  Well, at this point I started to think about the people that mean that most to me…it wasn’t because my friends told me to, and it wasn’t because my parents made me.  Then I thought about my little brother, little sister, and the other little kids I meet.  I realized that when I thought about the younger kids I realized that every time I stepped out onto the court, they were looking up to me…”

“My parents were always telling me about how I did some things better than they did in school.  I didn’t understand why until just this year.  I always wanted to be great, but I realized that true greatness is paving the way for those who come after me.  I was always asked if my little brother was going to be as good as me, and I would always say ‘I don’t know,’ but I sure hope so, because I want him to be better than I ever was.  

As we start the rest of our lives as students, employees and parents, be great at what you do, for those that come after you.”

Speaker Isabella Shelton then addressed the graduates.  “My name is Isabella Shelton, but you all know me as Izzy.  I wasn’t really sure what to say in this speech, so I spent the last couple weeks observing, and trying to find someone to say something inspirational I could write my speech on.  But unfortunately, I had no luck…one night I was thinking and I came up with a new perspective.  We’ve all heard the saying ‘If walls could talk’…So I wrote a letter from the SSH building to us.  I may not know every detail about everyone, but I do know that we all share something in common.  We all share a story about our lives, and I thought the best way to share a story about the last four years was from the perspective of the building that has seen it all.

‘Dear Class of 2024, I’ve seen it all from the time you were freshman.  I watched you walk through my door on the first day of school with a proud smile on your face to be able to say you were finally in high school.  I watched you walk down my hallways intimidated by the seniors, but later on it was hard to let go, because we were a family.  

I watched all of you drive in the parking lot for the first time you got your driver’s licenses, and watched certain individuals drive their car into a power pole because they were late to practice.  I will not name this individual, but if you have any questions about what happened, Quentin would be happy to answer them.

We spent hours together decorating for homecoming, and playing games like Flower Wars and Power Puff, hours of practices, on band, musicals, BPA, FCCLA, esports…standing in the student section dressing up for theme games chanting your favorite cheer…you looked up to senior year for one reason and one reason only—seniors got the front row.

In your final years, I have watched individuals mature and exceed out of their comfort zones, master the skills of procrastination…

We spent these last years making memories together that we will always remember.  You’ve left your mark here at SSHS, whether it was from physically making a hole, leaving a name on a record , having your memories talked about, and overall being  good kids.

We have spent thousands of hours together and I’ve watched all of you go from Freshmen to Seniors, and I’m proud of all of you for graduating as Cardinals.  Our departure is not forever—it’s just temporary because like Mrs. Kirby always says, ‘Once a Cardinal, Always a Cardinal.  Sincerely, SSHS. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Class of 2024.”

Principal Jess McMurray then spoke to his students, explaining that they were ready to move on, and commenting that many people would not be sad to see them go—especially competitors from other schools who might finally be able to win with some of them gone.  “This class has provided many memories,” he stated, and then went on to mention many students by name and list their accomplishments, contributions, and the things about them that he felt represented the exceptional qualities of the Class of 2024, including 50% of the class who had received job training certification in CNA and other programs.  80% earned college credits, a total of nearly 1000 total.  He finished with a story about how life will throw some hard things at you, but it’s “okay to bleed every once in a while” but also encouraged students to seek help when they needed it.

Diplomas were awarded by members of the Board of Trustees, and Superintendent Scott Muir.