Eden Prairie High School will host commencement ceremonies on Friday, June 7, at Mariucci Arena at the University of Minnesota.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. There are 746 graduates this year. Among them, 100 will graduate with gold cord honors signifying a GPS of 3.9 to 4.0, and 116 will wear silver cords signifying a GPA of 3.75 to 3.89. Red honor cords will be given to 241 of the graduates, indicating that they have six or more AP and/or college level credits, a GPA of 3.5 or above, and 54 earned credits.
The graduates have selected the white rose as their class flower, “Boston” by Augustana as their class song, and black and white as the class colors. The class motto is “Not finished. Just begun.”
The graduates voted to have social studies teacher Steve Cwodzinski as the guest teacher speaker at commencement. Through an audition process, four students were selected to address their peers: Annie Baker, Megan Phillips, Layla Safina, and Brinda Shah.
Following commencement, the seniors will report back to the high school one last time for the all-night senior party. This year’s theme is “A Night in the Spotlight” and will feature inflatables, bingo, casino games, movies, comedians, EP-opoly, a hypnotist, spa services, raffles, and of course food all night long.
Each year the graduates also participate in a service project as one of their party activities. This year they will create personal care bags to be donated to PROP. Many of the items that will be assembled for the bags have been donated by area businesses. The party is planned by parents of seniors and juniors who fundraise, decorate and chaperone the party. It provides a safe, drug and alcohol-free environment for the graduates to celebrate their accomplishments. The party ends at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning.
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