"A pretty big milestone to be done," says Nellie McClung Collegiate Co-Valedictorian

Fourteen graduates wrapped up their high school career at Nellie McClung Collegiate in Manitou yesterday, with the school's grad ceremony taking place. The class had Co-Valedictorians; Kieran Reid and Bethany Sanders.

"It's good to know the kids in the class appreciate us, and feel like we represent the class as a whole," shared Sanders when asked how it felt to be nominated by her peers to the role. "It's nice to know that we were growing up all these years together, and I don't know how to describe it, but it's nice to look forward to the future, and go off to university, start new things."

Sanders is heading off to the University of Waterloo for architectural engineering.

"I've always liked design stuff, and I also really enjoyed math and science, so it's kind of a tie between both my specific program," she explained. "It's like a bridge between civil engineering and actual architecture. I'll be doing structural stuff with buildings."

Meanwhile, Reid, who is attending the University of Manitoba starting this Fall for his Education Degree, described graduation as the end of a long road.

"Kind of been a lot of effort for, I guess, thirteen years," said Reid. "It's been a long while waiting, and when you think about it, it approaches faster than you might have wanted, but a pretty big milestone to be done high school for me."

Sanders noted growing up in a small-town, the class was a pretty tight-knit group.

"Everyone knows each other, and then when grad comes, the whole community comes out and supports us because everyone knows each other," she said, then turning her attention to describing the class.. "Our class is very sports oriented... We have a couple of kids that do the musicals in town and choir. I'm involved in sports, I do music stuff. There's also a travel club this year, so like a quarter of our class went over to Europe."

Reid had a similar view of the class.

"We kind of have a wide range of people for only being fourteen, but I've actually been surprised at how close we've kind of kept," he reflected. "We haven't really had that couple of people who drifted away like some of those bigger classes, so we're all pretty close friends, and as far as I know, we all get along."

Reid and Sanders were both very involved in sports during their time in school, with Reid pointing to track and field and volleyball as his favourites.

- With files from Nicole Klassen -