The students graduating from Vermont’s high schools this year are extraordinary in many ways. For most of high school, they have been on the frontlines of a global pandemic. They attended school from their bedrooms. They had to find the strength to forge connection and community while enduring personal isolation. They returned to school wearing masks to keep each other and their families safe as the pandemic raged around them. Now, like young people everywhere, they dream of a brighter future — and are actively building it. They are the ones we have been waiting for.

On this Vermont Conversation, we speak with five remarkable members of the class of 2022. Ava Thurston from Harwood Union High School has been Vermont state champion in both cross-country skiing and running in all four years of high school, won the U18 national championships in cross-country skiing this year, and aspires to ski in the Olympics. 

Yahir Ramirez from Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans is the son of Mexican farmworkers in Vermont who volunteers with Migrant Justice, and he soon will attend Harvard.

Addie Lentzner from Arlington Memorial High School helped prod Gov. Phil Scott to extend emergency housing for people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. 

Kiara Mack of Winooski High School is an all-star soccer player and team captain who confronted racism directed at student-athletes. 

Sawyer Totten is a transgender student and LGBTQ+ leader who inspired peers from around the state to walk out and speak out to protest the national wave of anti-trans legislation.

These students have made a lasting mark on their communities. Now, they are heading out to change the world.

For Ramirez, who will be a first-generation college student when he attends Harvard, graduating Bellows Free Academy “really means a lot to the family because it really just shows that we're able to do it. … My background or my color, it doesn't limit me.”

Kiara Mack says that she struggled to get through high school until she finally felt she was being heard. Then she emerged as a student leader against racism. 

“I'm proud of the impact I have on people. I have a lot of younger students who I try to steer more in the right path because I feel that I can connect with them on a different level,” she said. “I'm really happy with the imprint I've left on my school and who I am being seen as I am graduating.”