BUCHANAN — Wearing her Buchanan colors of maroon and white, graduating senior Jade Jewell wiped tears from her eyes Friday evening as she thanked the students and staff of Buchanan High School for creating an environment where she was able to feel at home.

“I am a 6-foot-tall, gay, black woman, usually sporting a giant puff of curls atop my head. I like to call myself a triple threat,” she joked to a packed set of bleachers at the high school football field.

Jewell spoke about how at a high school she previously attended, she felt discriminated against for her differences, but once she came to Buchanan, she felt that her new community embraced her.

“There’s a light at Buchanan no other place has. It’s a light of empathy, compassion and tolerance that completely transforms the way we learn and treat others,” she said. “I cannot thank this community enough for accepting me with the most open of arms. I cannot thank this community enough for helping me realize I am loved despite how different I am. I cannot thank this community enough for accepting the thing that ties us all together — being human. Thanks to this community, I have become richer than I’ve ever been.”

Jewell was just one member of the Buchanan Class of 2019 to graduate this weekend. In total, 96 students walked across a stage at the football field, making the transition from students to alumni. However, before graduates could toss their caps up into the air and move on to the next stage of their lives, faculty and student speakers looked back on their favorite times with the graduating class and encouraged the students to chase after their dreams.

Like Jewell, the rest of the senior speakers spoke about their happy memories at Buchanan High School and encouraged their fellow students to make the best of their lives going forward.

“We’ve seen failure, but we’ve also seen success arise from that failure, and we’ve learned to take the good with the bad. For example, when this year’s Winterfest and Battle of the Fans game was canceled, we rescheduled, we still had fun and made great memories,” said speaker Maya Schuhknecht. “Buchanan High School is a wonderful place to grow and prosper. … As we leave today, with our diplomas in hand, may all of you continue on with finding the success in failure and strive to think of every situation as a new opportunity.”

In her speech, graduate Sydney Bauer reminisced on her times at Buchanan High School and encouraged her fellow graduates never to forget what they are leaving behind.

“Although many look at graduating as an end, instead look at it as a new beginning, a time to make new friends and explore new parts of the world,” Bauer said. “Make sure to let your parents know that you appreciate them for everything that they have done for you over the years, but most importantly, don’t forget where you came from because Buchanan will be right here when you are ready to come back, waiting with open arms.”

In her speech, life-long Buchanan Community Schools attendee Megan Adkerson looked toward the future, while thanking her classmates and teachers for helping the Class of 2019 make it to graduation.

“Everyone here today has already succeeded. Congratulations everyone. You are officially going to be a high school graduate,” she said, smiling. “We will soon have to worry about things bigger than ourselves, and our problems that we had here will seem like child’s play. So please, Class of 2019, be responsible with the rest of your lives and thank you to teachers, parents, students and anyone who has helped me and my classmates achieve this wonderful accomplishment.”