In the past, May always meant tulips, breaking out the lawn furniture and graduations. Covid-19 hasn’t stopped the tulips or kept us from sitting outside (albeit 6 feet apart), but for the Class of 2020 graduations have been cancelled or hopefully, only postponed. In the meantime, there is a lot of sadness, disappointment and uncertainty about job offers, college plans that may or not happen, road trips and summer grad parties that look tenuous at best.
Despite this pandemic, Swifty wants these grads to be celebrated. We can’t pipe in Pomp & Circumstance or give inspiring speeches, but we can provide a platform to celebrate all that these amazing students have accomplished in and out of the classroom. We know each of you have a grad in your life who is feeling cheated by this virus. Our goal is to provide a platform where the Class of 2020 can be celebrated and honored not by a thousand people on the football field but by tens of thousands via social media.
We invite you to use the hashtags #Classof2020 and #2020Grads to share a picture and a few words to shine a light on one of the many outstanding members of the class of 2020 on your favorite social media. Please give Swifty a tag so we can join the congratulations! Not on social? Send a bio and picture of your grad to info@swiftyfoundation.org and we will post your grad on Swifty’s FB page!
With great pride we start today with the
grads closest to Swifty’s heart, our junior board:
I’d like to introduce two of Michael’s closest friends, David and Colin. Colin and Michael played endless games of chess as Michael was “quarantined” after treatments, too tired to run and play outside as they used to. That didn’t stop those two from making each other laugh until their sides hurt. Colin will graduate from University of Wisconsin (Go Badgers!) with a BS in Computer Science and will be working for Microsoft in Seattle come August. Way to go Colin!
When David and Michael weren’t out on the golf course they could be found cracking up watching a Pixar movie together. As one of our best advocates, David has starred in Swifty videos and an NCTV Spotlight. David will graduate from Iowa State (Go Cyclones!) with a Biology degree and will be working in Ames at the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab after graduation. Congratulations David!
Kira is graduating from IUPUI (Go Jaguars!) as a Top 100 student with a BS in Biology and a BA in Spanish. You may remember Kira shaved her head twice to raise money for Swifty. Her friendship with Michael was so formative and touched her so deeply that come July she will be heading to Western Michigan University’s School of Medicine where she will pursue her dream of being a pediatric oncologist. Well done, Kira!
Like Michael, Kevin was a member of Naperville North’s golf team. As a senior, Kevin helped organize the annual Crosstown Matchplay fundraiser for Swifty. He also used his amazing musical talent to host many fundraisers for Swifty with his jazz trio, Inversion. Kevin will be studying Engineering at Purdue University (Go Boilermakers!) in the fall. Between his keen intellect, musical talent and generous spirit we anticipate a fantastic four years for Kevin.
And finally, Michael’s twin sister, Bridget will graduate with Honors from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Environmental Molecular Biology. As a member of Cal’s sand volleyball team, Bridget and a teammate started Herbicide Free Campus when they discovered pesticides being sprayed on the sand courts they played, dove and ran in day after day. In the fall, Bridget will be working full time for Herbicide Free Campus helping to spread the campaign beyond the 16 current herbicide free campuses across the country. Grassroots at its finest, best of luck Bridget!
We’ve gotten the ball rolling. We are counting on you, Swifty’s supporters, to join us in what we hope will be an outpouring of admiration and celebration of this class that has been impacted by this crisis. They deserve our recognition and well wishes.
Comments 1
patti
i love this