For Waukegan High School seniors like Isabella Burleson, Return to Roots Day was an opportunity to visit her former elementary school, wearing the cap and gown she will don at graduation on Friday and hopefully offer inspiration to younger students.
“It was cool to see their faces and remember when I was here,” Burleson said after parading through Andrew Cooke Magnet Elementary School. “It was cool to see the kids look up to me.”
Cooke fifth graders like Delilah Adams, who will soon make her transition to middle school, watched the graduating seniors wearing their caps and gowns — some adorned with multiple medals earned in high school — and said seeing the soon-to-be graduates was special.
“It was exciting to see them,” she said. “Seeing the pins shows they worked hard and are going to college,” she added, referring to decorations on the gowns showing different achievements and beliefs. “Seeing that makes me want to work hard and go to college.”
Burleson was one of 123 Waukegan High School seniors to board four buses for the third-annual Return to Roots Day on Tuesday, taking them to the elementary school where their road to Friday’s graduation ceremony began, so they could inspire the youngest students to achieve.
Cooke Principal Stephanie Jensen said Return to Roots Day is an opportunity for both the seniors to reconnect with the place where formal schooling began for most of them, and to inspire elementary school students to work toward the day when it is their turn to graduate.
“I love the Return to Roots Day because it gives our students a chance to celebrate the success of the graduates, and it shows our students what they can do one day in the future,” she said.
Some seniors kept their gowns simple, while others personalized them with stoles, pins and medals like Sashenka Solis. She wore her medal of biliteracy from the state of Illinois, demonstrating fluency in English and Spanish as well as a stole with a message of faith and heritage.
“There’s a Mexican flag. I’m first-generation,” Solis said, referring to being the daughter of immigrants. “This represents my Catholic faith,” she added, pointing to a religious figure. “My faith is very important to me.”
Paula Guadarrama is not only a first-generation American, but the first in her family to graduate high school, though she has older brothers. Her stole had a likeness of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her parents are “immensely” proud of her achievement, she said.
Burleson’s gown was full of medals, many from her time as a member of the high school’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, as well as others for academic and extracurricular achievements. She has a white cord signifying she is graduating summa cum laude with a GPA of 4.5 or better.
Solis, Burleson and Guadarrama are all looking at careers in the healthcare field. For Guadarrama, the pursuit is personal. She plans to study nursing at the College of Lake County.
“My dad has cancer,” Guadarrama said. “I want to be able to help care for him and take some of the weight off my mother.”
For Cooke fifth graders like Gianna Narbone and Alyson Bahena, watching and interacting with the high school seniors gave them an aspiration for their future. They were impressed by the medals and other decorations on the gowns.
“It was pretty nice to see them,” Gianna said. “Seeing them makes me think one day it will be me. I saw all that stuff, the medals. Seeing them makes me want to work hard for them.”
“It’s nice to see and know they were (once) in our school,” Alyson said.
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