May 8—MITCHELL — The Mitchell High School Class of 2025 is ready to wrap up their high school experience.
With graduation around the corner next week, many are finalizing plans for the next stage of their lives, be it as part of the workforce, college or military service.
Many of those seniors were celebrated Wednesday night at the Mitchell Performing Arts Center during the Mitchell School District’s annual Senior Awards Night, an event that sees the graduating students acknowledged for their scholarly accomplishments, including honors for academic excellence and scholarships received.
“You have strived to graduate from high school, and that is a goal that you have met and to be proud of. Some students will start a post-secondary journey to a technical college or university, and others will join our armed forces or enter the workforce,” Kim Max, counselor at Mitchell High School who served as emcee for the evening, told the assembled seniors. “All of you are to be celebrated in every way.”
Many awards and recognitions were presented, including scholarships from dozens of civic organizations, such as the local Kiwanis and Exchange clubs, as well colleges and technical schools. Students came to the stage as their names were announced to receive their certificates and awards, with warm rounds of applause rising from the audience of friends, family and well-wishers.
The event was also a chance to hear from a former Mitchell High School graduate who was already out making his way in the world.
Carson Max, a 2019 Mitchell graduate and a 2023 South Dakota State University graduate who was recently commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force, is currently attending the University of South Dakota for medical school. He took the stage after being introduced by his mother, Kim Max, and urged the graduating seniors to look inward as they look to step outward to the next phase of their life in an address titled Who Am I?
“You’re all about to cross a huge milestone, and the typical message is — you finished high school. Now what? It’s a valid question, but it can feel a little overused. Usually it’s followed by a variation of — find your dream, work hard and you’ll achieve it,” Carson Max said. “While it does have some validity, sometimes you forget about all the steps along the process.”
Citing himself as an example, he noted that the path forward in life is not always smooth or clearly marked. His own journey in college was not what he expected, he said. As a younger student, he shared the dream of many, wanting to become a professional athlete. But as he got older, he embraced the reality that the NFL would be a difficult goal to achieve with him being “5-foot-10, 200 pounds and not very fast.”
But he found a passion in health and medicine, and set his sights on that career field at the relatively young age of 12. He had visited a doctor for an injury, and the appointment would change his journey from professional athlete to doctor. It was a revelation that set in motion events that would eventually take him to medical school.
“Sounds a little out there, a little lofty. Doesn’t make a lot of sense. But nonetheless, 14 years later, I’m in my second year of medical school, and had to learn a lot along the way of what a dream actually looked like,” Carson Max said. “Most importantly, how did that dream fit a calling? A meaning? And what am I going to do with it to serve others?”
He said knowing who one is goes beyond one’s name, profession, alma mater or even family. Those are all important in knowing your identity, but he encouraged the seniors to dig deeper as he once did, asking himself difficult questions about why he chose to work hard toward his goals and why he chose to approach those goals the way he did.
Within his experience as a medical student, he cited how he approached working with patients and conveying to them that he was there to do everything he could to help them with their problem. He also said meeting his wife while in college changed his perspective, allowing him to embrace his shortcomings and work to overcome them.
He offered three ways for students to begin the process of knowing themselves: self awareness, self regulation and humility.
Self awareness covers the ability to know one’s faults. Self regulation allows one to determine what to do with those feelings and to realize that doubts are part of a complex process of self-realization. Humility gives one the ability to admit when they fall short and to move forward toward a solution.
“It took a lot of time, a lot of lost sleep, a lot of worry, and I realized I didn’t actually know myself. Am I willing to admit when I fall short? Can I stand up here and say that I’m probably not the best speaker in the world? Absolutely. That’s just a small example of walking through that process,” Carson Max said. “How I’m engaging with reality at this present moment is something you all have to do at any given point in time, and more so as you go from a big leap of high school and beyond.
Graduation is the beginning of a new time in a student’s life, and he encouraged them to begin that journey with the broad question of “who am I?” He invited them to wrestle with the question and not be afraid when searching for the answer becomes difficult or uncomfortable. That is part of the process, and he urged the new graduates to lean into it.
He admitted that, at 25, he still does not know completely who he himself is. He still does not know all his shortcomings and blind spots nor the boundaries of his talents. But that’s OK. The important part is that he has started that introspection, and knowing who he is is part of knowing what he can do for the world.
“It’s a starting point. Lean into it and say ‘this is where I’m starting.’ So, class of 2025, I hope you realize I’ve left you with an abstract question, but one that once you begin to wrestle with opens up a broader door, a cornerstone, a harvest that keeps on giving,” Carson Max said. “I encourage you to find peace in the process of discovering exactly who you are, what you’re meant to do and the purpose you’re meant to serve.”
Dozens of awards, recognitions and scholarships were announced at the ceremony. Those included but were not limited to the following:
Military Recognition
Kane Grajkowske, Tayle Liedtke, Dawson Ward
Academic Excellence Award
Lauren Hofer, Brady Trefz, Rachel Ziegeldorf
Outstanding Achievements
Floyd Korzan, Ashlyn Reynolds, Addison Ellis, Lainee Forst, Joshua Machado
Carolynn J. Austin Scholarship
Amelia Gerlach
PE Mentorship Recognition
Alex Hauser, Van Long, Payton Hunter, Kayleigh Maus, Raegan Sperl, Brady Trefz, Lani Thompson, Jaeda Stunes, Reese Amick, Ava Eliason, Grace Hempel, Cesia Mendoza, Joslin Sommerville, Markus Talley, Greyson Peterson, Lora Titze
Mitchell Rotary Carl Sprunger Educator of the Year Award
Leslie Rylance
Gertie Belle Rogers PTA Scholarship
Makenzie Peterson
L.B. Williams Alumni Scholarship
Amelia Gerlach
Longfellow PTO Scholarship
Camryn Swanstrom
St. John Paul II School PTO Scholarship
Grace Hempel