Sprayberry High School seniors, their families and local religious leaders gathered to celebrate the school’s second annual interfaith baccalaureate this week at Kennesaw State University.
Local Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim leaders gave the 28 students in attendance words of advice for adulthood, sharing both religious and secular wisdom.
“There is no passion for being found in playing small and settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living,” Faraz Iqbal of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta said in his speech. “The Class of 2022 is going to make the world know who they are and the impact that they can make... whether it’s going to college, learning a trade, running a business, whatever that is, no one can take your education away from you.”
Students shared their next steps after graduation and the emotions they were feeling as their high school careers come to a close.
Student Kalen Hawley read a poem about not quitting in the face of adversity.
“It doesn’t feel real. Mostly because of what I’ve been through with school as a whole and personal stuff, but I’m just excited to walk across that stage,” Hawley said after the ceremony.
Hawley intends to pursue a career in music.
Sprayberry senior Jonathan Sandberg echoed that level of excitement when talking about walking the stage and accepting his diploma.
“It feels like my life is just starting, and I’m really excited to see how I will progress in college, how I will be on my own, being independent and just seeing what goes on from there,” Sandberg said.
Sandberg plans to attend Kennesaw State University and study computer engineering.
Sharona Sandberg, president of the Sprayberry Foundation, organized the inaugural version of the event last year where 14 students participated. This year, attendance doubled. Sandberg said the event is the only one of its kind in Cobb.
“We’re just giving these kids a blessing as they go out onto the world, you know, and saying, ‘Hey, you did something phenomenal,’” Sandberg said. “The fact that four major religions can come together and celebrate these graduates is huge.”
Typically, baccalaureate ceremonies are focused on Christian students, and for that reason, Sandberg said she received some pushback for the event.
“Sometimes you just got to change and be different,” Sandberg said. “A couple of other schools have reached out to me asking me about what I’m doing, and they want to do this at their school next year.
Sandberg wanted to celebrate Sprayberry being considered the fourth most diverse public high school in Georgia as reported by Niche.com.
“We’ve always been looked at as the ‘lesser than’ school because we are so diverse, and we don’t have the affluent population that a lot of the other east Cobb schools have,” Sandberg said. “So we have started turning that conversation around and saying, our diversity is our strength, not our weakness.”
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