The eighth-grade promotion event was a two-day affair for Nile Garden Elementary School, which put up a virtual ceremony on YouTube on Tuesday and held its drive-thru recessional on campus Wednesday night.
The 24-minute video contained much of what would take place in a traditional graduation, starting with introductory speeches from Principal Deborah Noceti-Ward and Vice Principal Katie Francis.
Dulce Campuzano-Marin then recited the Pledge of Allegiance and was followed by the playing of the National Anthem.
Jaden Alton kicked off student speeches, summarizing her eight years at Nile Garden. Mariam Ghazal discussed her experience of spending the final months of her eighth-grade year in quarantine, which include missing out on the much-anticipated class trip to Great America.
Olivia Navarro, whose speech was translated into Spanish by Jacqueline Gutierrez-Landin, provided a positive glance into the future for the graduating class.
Principal Noceti-Ward introduced the school's four special honors for citizenship, perfect attendance, academic achievement and subject-specific awards (language arts, math, science, social studies and physical education) before each of the eighth graders were presented in the video.
Noceti-Ward later presented Manteca Unified Outstanding Character Award winners Cooper Brothers and Maya Murillo. Also recognized for holding 4.0 grade-point averages throughout eighth grade were Arleth Moralez Martinez, Olivia Navarro, Campuzano-Marin, Ghazal and Murillo. Murillo was among the Panthers' most decorated eighth-graders, garnering school awards for citizenship, academics and all five of the individual subjects.
The virtual promotion concluded with farewell remarks from students Keira Stanley, Dahlia Lopez and Kaitlin Shirley and congratulatory messages from MUSD School Board members.
The rest of Nile Garden's class of 2020: Jasmin Aguayo-Magana, Luis Alarez, Kale'ah Arrivas, Stasia Arterburn, Kristen Azevedo, Haylie Brasil, Litzy Bravo, Irvin Bravo-Flores, Albert Calvo, Jacob Carattini, Deisy Carrasco, Rodrigo Cervantes-Ruiz, Natalia Chavez, Adrian Coniconde, Karolyna Anita Corona Lee, Jaiden Basrah De Dios, Matthew Dolor, Alexa Garcia, Uri Garcia, Moises Gloria, Justin Herrmann, Austin House, Jenat James, Sharandeep Jhammat, Samuel Kelley, Ryan Kittilstvedt, Ismael Lopez, Alondra Loya-Torres, Sarah Maloney, Savannah McBroom, Rylan McDonald, Derek McGuire, Cole McLarty, Mansoor Mesdaq, Gabriel Morales, Anthony Napoles, Giovanni Napoles, Sebastian, Nazzisi, Sebastian Nazzisi, Ashlynn Neese, Peyton Nieman, Sophia Nussbaumer, Gage Pfeifer, Julio Pineda Aguilar, Naomi Rosa, Nevaeah Ruezga, Aasim Sadiq, Juan Salcedo, Joshua Saldivar, Abigail Shaffer, Cohen Spence, Wyatt Swanson, Jacob Tavares, Frank Teicheira, Angel Valdez, Karol Valdez and Juan Villalobos.
