The 104 members of the Jackson Academy Class of 2026 stepped forward to accept their diplomas on Thursday, May 14, at 7:30 p.m. in The Brickyard, JA’s on-campus stadium. The evening opened with a procession of faculty and students entering from the west end of the stadium, setting a tone of ceremony and significance. The outdoor evening ceremony beneath a clear May sky is a custom that has taken firm root at JA, offering a perfect setting for a moment years in the making. Each diploma represented not just the end of a high school career, but the beginning of a life shaped by the values and preparation JA has instilled along the way.
The World Is Waiting for Who You Are Becoming
Salutatorian Morgan Cheatham stepped to the podium with a welcome and a charge for her fellow graduates to walk forward with courage, and trust the preparation that brought them to this moment. She reflected on the years of investment poured into the Class of 2026 by the people who believed in them most: family members, teachers, and mentors who stood in their corners through every triumph and setback. That cheering from the sideline, humor in stressful moments, and building up when they were deeply questioning their own potential was the careful, purposeful work of individuals who were preparing them for a world they have not yet seen.
The moments and memories born from those relationships are not left behind with a diploma. They travel with each graduate into whatever comes next. What comes next, Morgan made clear, is entirely up to them. “We have been given the tools for success,” she told her classmates. “It is now up to us to use them.”
She left them with a final thought of challenge and invitation: “The world is waiting for who we are becoming.”
Tracing God’s Goodness Through It All
Valedictorian Natalie Roberson anchored her remarks in a theme deeply personal to her, the goodness of God, and traced it through her own journey as a student at JA. She opened by describing her arrival as a seventh grader during the uncertainty of the pandemic. New to the school and navigating a world of social distancing, she found herself struggling to connect. She turned to prayer, asking God to equip her to reach out and find her footing in an unfamiliar place. “God listens to each of our prayers and answers them in ways we cannot imagine,” she told her classmates.
From that personal beginning, Natalie widened her lens to include the entire senior class, pointing to the ways God’s goodness had woven itself through their shared years at JA. She named teachers, coaches, and Bible study leaders as vessels through whom that goodness had been delivered, people doing the quiet, faithful work of shaping lives. She did not shy away from the harder chapters either, reminding her classmates that God’s goodness does not disappear in difficulty. If anything, she said, it is often in those uncomfortable moments that faith is forged most deeply.
She closed on a tender note, borrowing from Winnie the Pooh, to capture what words alone could not quite hold: “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
Seniors Shape Every Moment of the Night
The evening was shaped by the voices and leadership of the senior class from its opening moments. Breck Hines Jr. set a reverent tone with the invocation, and Katherine Gault led the gathered crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. Lucy Jones brought a moment of tradition and generosity to the evening by presenting the senior class gift to Associate Head of School Matt Morgan. Mary Lamar Chustz introduced the platform guests, followed by the awarding of diplomas by Board Chair Dr. Brad Williams, Head of School Eddie Wettach, and Head of Upper School Kyle Nichols. Shelby Grant closed the ceremony with the benediction, offering a final word of blessing over a class ready to step into whatever the road ahead holds.
During the ceremony, each senior portrait appeared on the Jumbotron while Choral Music students offered a moving rendition of “May the Road Rise Up to Meet You,” the beloved Irish blessing.
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
