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JDHS commencement offers a thump, crumple and chomp to set the next scenes for the Class of 2026
- Mark Sabbatini
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
Ceremony for 280 graduates marked by novelty and irreverence amongst the congratulations and words of wisdom
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
This story has been updated to correct a reference to the Alaska Native dance performers at the ceremony.
Graduating senior Arlo Davis began his speech by opening a fortune cookie and reading the parchment inside ("You will find what you're looking for"). Almost as an afterthought, he ate the cookie. He then ate the fortune, needing several swigs from a bottle of neon blue liquid to get it down.
It was that kind of ceremony.
The 280 seniors graduating at Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé on Sunday afternoon heard plenty of congratulatory words and "follow your dreams" mantras during the 90-minute gathering at the George Houston Gymnasium, but in ways as far-ranging and sometimes unconventional as the individual artwork on the tops of students’ graduation caps.
Davis, for instance, followed his fortune feat by reciting an ancient Chinese proverb.
"A man who plants melons will harvest melons and a man who plants beans will harvest beans," he said. He then asked the graduates to "replace ‘melons’ with ‘get money.’"
"Do you want to be the melon-harvesting shad or the bean-harvesting shud?" he asked his peers. "I know which one I am. I ask you to ponder that."
That was followed by the other student speaker, Cassie Lumba, bringing her own piece of paper to the stage — which was not eaten. Instead, she told her fellow students a fourth-grade teacher did a demonstration with a sheet of paper to show trust, an eighth-grade teacher used one to demonstrate kindness, and thus she was using the paper for a demonstration of her own.
"As seniors we all can attest to moments where the rug feels as though it's been pulled out from under us," she said. "From flunking a test, hours of homework, learning how to drive — sometimes twice — to practicing in sports or music or academics, we felt as though our fates were on the line, that time was running out."
"Time and time again we question and wonder if we’re able to get back the hours that have passed, and in these moments we crumple," Lumba continued, crushing the paper into a ball, "and sometimes we wind ourselves up so tight that it feels impossible to try again."
"But we prove it's possible because we open back up," she said, reopening the crinkled sheet. "We face things head-on, and that is evident in the fact that you all are seated here today and trying again."
Even a relatively conventional speech by Jamie Marks, a teacher and coach retiring after 30 years, didn’t stay completely true to form.
"Teaching has been the greatest honor of my life, and you students have become part of who I am today. Go forth, pursue a dream, get back to your community, be kind to people" — and holding up his hand in a Vulcan salute — he concluded with "live long, and prosper."
The showpiece, so to speak, was the keynote speech by Gold Town Theater owner Collette Costa, who opened with a flustered dropping of her notecards. That was followed by an "impromptu" scene swap that involved her being surrounded by three life-size movie star cutouts and two petite sunglass-wearing security guards who appeared to be years away from being old enough to attend JDHS.
The words that followed were a free-flowing prattle of non-sequiturs and asides that described the thrill of being asked to speak as "this is the closest I'm going to feel to making out with Tom Hardy."
"This is one of the greatest things I have ever been asked to do and the importance of this moment is not lost on me for all of the silliness," she said. "I have been truly, truly terrified about this for the last couple of months — mostly today when I started writing this speech. I honestly have played many gigs at Lemon Creek Correctional and this is harder…I mean, the difference is like they have a captive audience, like obviously they have their security guards, and they do give me donuts."
But Costa also took a moment to note how she journeyed from being in the audience seats as an intrepid JDHS graduate to the surreal experience of the speech she was delivering.
"All I wanted to do was watch movies and every adult at that time told me that that's not a job," she said. "Pro tip: It is. Everything is a job if you make it. And if you've got people telling you that what you love or what you want to do isn’t valid or worthy or real, it's only because they lack the imagination necessary to make it happen and your job is to prove them wrong. Try not to let fear be your guide. When a chance comes along for you to try something that absolutely terrifies you, do it because it's thrilling."
Another artistic novelty was the first-ever performance at a JDHS graduation by a group of Alaska Native dancers initiated by members of the school’s Native Youth Council. They were introduced by Seikoonie Fran Houston, an alumnus of what for many years was Juneau-Douglas High School, and who played a role in adding the Tlingit name to the title in 2019.
"I had two graduates invite me to tea and this is what they wanted to do," she told the audience, referring to the debut appearance by the dancers. "And it's about them. It's not about us. It's about them, what they wanted."
Dancers also performed during the graduation ceremony at Yaaḵoosgé Daakahídi High School at midday Sunday.
"I think it should be that way, with the dancing," said Christian Patterson, 18, one of the graduating students at JDHS who joined both performances and who has been involved with a local Native dance group for the past year. His regalia included a dog salmon stole made by his aunt, Consuelo Demmert, to represent their Raven Dog heritage, and a second stole provided by a friend with the decor of an eagle feather.
Patterson, a guitar player with the local band Oceanview, said he plans to spend this summer at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp before going on to begin his college studies at UAS. He did his celebrating with his family on Saturday night.
"I’m probably just going to sleep tonight," he said.
Other graduates discussed varying plans for the hours, days and months to come when the ceremony was over, as they clustered with family and friends who bestowed the new alumni with wreaths and posed for pictures.
One of the more novel decorative caps featured "do not cross" police crime scene tape along with an engineer named Rocky from the fictional planet Eridian. It was worn by Rachel Weed, 17, who said she’s planning to attend the University of Alaska — first in Juneau and then at the Anchorage campus — to pursue a career as a forensic analyst.
"I thought it'd be fun to do something that I wanted to do in the future on my cap," she said. "And I really like ‘Project Hail Mary,’ both the book and the movie, so I put Rocky on there and a quote from the movie."
The novel and upbeat tone of the 90-minute ceremony was well received by those it was honoring.
"I've never been to a graduation ceremony before, but I really felt like the tone was pretty awesome," said Alder Caouette, 18, a four-year JDHS student who said he didn’t have any definite upcoming plans. "I mean, there's no need for it to be somber."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
More photos from the 2026 Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé commencement ceremony. (All by Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)
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