An Anchorage high school senior talks about what graduation means to him

Coen Niclai connected Tuesday, May 14, 2024, 2 days earlier his graduation from Anchorage’s Service High School. (Valerie Lake/Alaska Public Media)

It’s precocious schoolhouse graduation play crossed nan state, arsenic outgoing seniors don caps and gowns and judge their diplomas.

It’s nan culmination of years of difficult activity and a starting constituent for nan remainder of their lives.

Service High’s Coen Niclai is 1 of those graduates successful Anchorage. He’s a prima shot subordinate and a unpaid adjacent mentor for freshman and students pinch intelligence disabilities.

Niclai says starting precocious schoolhouse successful nan mediate of a pandemic was unique. But aft that first twelvemonth of distant learning, he says, starting an in-person sophomore twelvemonth had its ain challenges.

Listen:

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This question and reply has been lightly edited for magnitude and clarity.

Coen Niclai: It was benignant of interesting, conscionable emotion for illustration you’re a freshman, but you’re really not. And truthful it was decidedly a different benignant of experience. You benignant of person 3 years of precocious schoolhouse alternatively than four. But I deliberation erstwhile you benignant of adjusted and you recovered your bearings, you benignant of understood really to do it all.

Casey Grove: And I cognize you’ve sewage your experience, but, I mean, did you spot that pinch your peers that were portion of your class, too?

CN: Yeah, I deliberation they, you could decidedly show nan ones that are still trying to, benignant of, clasp connected to being a freshman aliases still holding connected to being successful nan mediate schoolhouse benignant of era. And past you person nan ones that are like, “Alright, I person 3 years now until I person to spell to college, aliases I person to commencement my job.” And you tin see, definitely, nan different levels of maturity wrong each classroom.

CG: I heard that you’ve done immoderate some unpaid activity done school, both, I guess, adjacent mentorship, and past besides moving pinch immoderate typical needs kids successful precocious school. Can you picture that for me? And what does that each entail?

CN: So nan adjacent mentorship is for illustration conscionable helping freshmen conscionable consciousness much astatine location and making them consciousness for illustration they person group astir them to talk to. And then, arsenic for nan typical needs, it was “peer teaching” is what he called it. You conscionable spell into nan classroom, you beryllium pinch a person, and you don’t really person to person immoderate understanding. It’s conscionable making judge they’re staying connected task aliases helping them do something, and I deliberation conscionable helping you understand what their life adversity is. I deliberation that really helps yourself and different life adverse situations arsenic well.

CG: Yeah. And why is that important? Why is it important to you? Why do you deliberation it’s important to different group to volunteer?

CN: I deliberation if you conscionable understand different people’s situations aliases understand people’s lives, it makes you much humble, because you’re knowing that you’re not amended than anyone else. It’s, everyone’s going done their ain things. And I deliberation conscionable volunteering is conscionable knowing that group person their stories, and immoderate are difficult and immoderate are easy, but I deliberation conscionable knowing it each is simply a really bully life skill.

CG: Man, I gotta say, I cognize group that are 20 years older than you that I don’t deliberation person figured that retired yet. It’s refreshing to perceive that.

CN: That’s good. That’s great.

CG: So you’re graduating present and for illustration 2 days from from erstwhile we’re talking. And, you know, you’re gonna locomotion crossed nan stage, they’re gonna manus you a diploma, what is it going to mean to you?

CN: I deliberation it intends it intends a lot. A batch of difficult activity and a batch of adversity, conscionable going done precocious schoolhouse and starting precocious schoolhouse different than astir kids and conscionable knowing that we sewage 4 years done. But I deliberation if you look astatine it arsenic an achievement, arsenic a commencement of an achievement, is what it would be, conscionable because you sewage activity aliases you sewage assemblage after. So I deliberation celebrating connected nan day, and past knowing that aft today, it’s, still sewage immoderate difficult activity to support going.