St. Mary's County Celebrates Their 2024 Graduates

ST. MARY’S COUNTY, Md. – St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS) held their 2024 graduation ceremonies May 29 through May 31. Each graduation was held at the outdoor stadium of each respective high school.

To kick off the week, Chopticon High School held their graduation ceremony on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Leonardtown held their ceremony on May 30, with Great Mills High School holding theirs on May 31.

“There are times in life when the circumstances are perfect for deep reflection and personal growth. These are rare moments of significant change when a person has a special opportunity to both reflect on where they’ve been and set a course on where they’ll go. Today is one of those special moments,” Stated Chopticon’s Principal Mark Pirner.

“In a world more anxious than ever, we are depending on you, our next generation, to move us in a better direction, and to do this, you must focus on improving the only thing you have control over, yourself…On behalf of all of us at Chopticon, we believe in you and we are so proud of you.”

Later on, SMCPS’ Superintendent Dr. J. Scott Smith gave a motivating speech going over some of the responses students submitted to one of the recent surveys sent out by the school board asking how students felt about graduating.

One of the questions on the survey was “What is giving you hope?” Dr. Smith then said the vast majority of students replied with their family.

Dr. Smith then had every student stand, turn around, and thank each person in the stands who was there to support them.

Dr. Smith then ended his speech with a note from SMCPS Teacher of the Year Lauren Runkels.

“The domino chain reaction and exponential growth is a great way to talk about your future. A domino has enough inertia to knock over another domino that is 1 1/2 times bigger than itself. So, with exponential growth, if you were to start with a domino the size of a pencil eraser, you can knock over something the size of the Empire State Building with only 29 dominos. So, I say to the class of 2024, be the domino that topples the tower.”