Fort Worth Country Day Class of 2020 makes huge marks in the classroom amid pandemic
Fort Worth Country Day, the oldest co-ed college-preparatory school in Fort Worth, celebrated the Class of 2020 with its graduation ceremony on June 6 - accomplishing something not many schools have.
Such as others across the state, the class was able to walk the stage in light of the coronavirus pandemic, and all 100 graduates can say they’ll be college students.
Every graduate will attend a university or college in the fall while 81% of the class earned more than $13 million in merit-based scholarships. This year’s class was accepted to a total of 130 universities and 100% of FWCD graduating seniors will attend 42 different institutions.
”Graduation is always such a significant milestone in the life of a school and in the lives of each and every graduating senior. The sense of accomplishment was even bigger than usual for each of our 100 members of the Class of 2020,” said Eric Lombardi, head of school at FWCD.
Among those students were valedictorian Stephanie Morgan, who will be attending Duke, and salutatorian Reena Alame, who will be attending SMU.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the school celebrated the class with a parade on the original graduation date on May 15 before holding its commencement at FWCD’s Rosacker Stadium.
“They left for spring break and didn’t come back. That we could get them on their campus again, one last time as a class, and that we could hand, at distance, each of them their hard-earned diploma in person was so gratifying,” Lombardi said.
Two seniors will attend Yale, increasing FWCD’s Ivy League enrollment to nine since 2017.
Three females applied and were admitted to five of the 34 active women’s colleges in the country, including Agnes Scott College, Barnard College, Scripps College, Spelman College and Wellesley College.
Four seniors in the performing and visual arts will continue their talents at Fordham, Northwestern, Trinity University and UT-Austin. Six athletes will continue their careers at Angelo State, Occidental College, Tufts University, Tulane, Washington and Lee, and Yale.
Other colleges that will be attended include Air Force, Georgia and Vanderbilt.
“Those young women and men have faced challenges. They have proved their resilience. They made us proud and will continue to make us proud as they head across the country to their chosen universities,” Lombardi said. “We are excited to see what they do with their lives.”
