Joliet Township High School 'Shines Bright' And 'Say More'

JOLIET, IL — Students of the class of 2020 have missed out on milestones that a lot of us take for granted. From graduation to prom and awards nights, those graduating from junior high, high school and college will not experience their milestones in person.

Officials at Joliet Township High School District 204 wanted to create an opportunity for seniors and the community to support the Class of 2020 in a public way. Joliet Township High School Superintendent Dr. Karla Guseman said the administration and staff wanted to create a theme and that theme is the first of the two hashtags: #shinebright.

"In a time of darkness, we wanted to be a light, which is where the idea for “Shine Bright” emerged," she stated in a written release. "It is our hope that "#shinebright" lets students know that we understand their disappointment and loss and that we are here for them.

"We are doing everything in our power to honor our seniors."

Meanwhile, students at Joliet Central High School got together and created videos to express how they are feeling graduating while in the stay-at-home order is in effect. Their hashtag, #SAYmore2020, was created by three seniors.

Sebastian Martinez, Alexus Maldonado and Yanni Ovalle decided to do something to connect to the community that they have been so involved in over the past four years.

"Basically how it all came to start is I kind of brought up the idea to Alexus and Sebastian to get involved, get the community involved," Ovalle said.

The students came up with the name — SAYMore — for a number of reasons. One is that the first letters of their first names spell SAY. The other speaks to what they want to do.

"The reason why we came up with that name is because now is a time that we should be reaching out to people," Maldonado said.

Martinez, Maldonado and Ovelle are all members of Joliet Central band. Through this, they have been active in the Joliet community, and they wanted this to continue even during the stay-at-home order.

Ovalle said they reached out into the community and 18 teachers responded to the call to participate.

"It's for us to check up on them too," he said of the teachers.

Here at Patch, we wanted to help to create a platform for seniors to have a voice in their experience of 2020. So we will continue to update this story with videos, photos and words from the class of 2020. Each of the submissions will be accessible below by clicking on its link. The main photo to the story will also rotate and change to highlight senior submissions.

Joliet Township High School Flickr page hosts all the submissions the district has received for #shinebright.

#SAYMore2020 created a 10-minute video that can be seen here.

#SAYMore202o also runs a Twitter and all their content, including videos of staff from Joliet Central High School can be viewed by going to the @SAYmore2020 page.

A video compilation of Senior decision day was just created. The Joliet West Counselors signed the email accompanying the alert as follows:

"Seniors- never doubt your worth and we hope you feel the pride and love from your Joliet West Family," the email stated.