Alyssa's Graduation from Avenue Five Institute

A Month Overdue...

Alyssa chose to graduate early, a couple of months after she turned 18, so she could go straight into a Cosmetology Program. After looking around, she chose Avenue Five: A Vidal Sassoon School.  Only about 12 exist in the USA, so it's a fairly prestigious school.  She learned so much there over the 10 month program. The way it works, time wise, is that you have to complete certain tasks, and 1500 hours of work. She quickly learned that keeping lunches to 30 minutes, and coming in a little early, would help click the time off more quickly. And, in spite of being really tired some days, she didn't want to take a hit with regard to her hours. She pressed on. I was so impressed! It was such a different experience from when she went to high school and was leaving early, sleeping late - I think her attendance rate (according to those nasty truancy notes) was about 65%. But juxtapose that with THIS experience - her attendance rate was 104%!!!

Because of this attitude, she was able to shave some time off. She and several of her friends graduated early from this program too. She was in the first week/wave of graduates from the people who started at the end of June 2011.

Graduation Pre-Parties

Happy Hour before the Graduations start

with Paige

Britney & Alyssa

The soon-to-be graduates went out to Hula Hut at Lake Austin. It would be one of the last times for them all to hang out together. Some were going to finish school and get a job in Austin, others would be moving away as soon as they graduated.  Even though some of the months felt like the program was never going to end, when it started winding down to the final weeks, everyone was feeling the bittersweetness of graduating.

Graduations Begin!

On the week of April 23-27, Alyssa's friend Roxy would step up to be the first to graduate. Each day after her, Callie, Robin and then Alyssa would reach their 1500 hours and the graduation would start. Sabrina graduated a week or so later, and Alyssa ran up there to be sure that she could bear witness to her friend's success! 

Callie, Robin, Roxy, Sabrina, Alyssa

Roxy's Graduation

Roxy's Graduation...hugging Alyssa goodbye

Her Little Group: Callie, Robin, Roxy, Alyssa, Sabrina

Alyssa's Graduation Day: 
April 27, 2012!

Sabrina working on Alyssa's hair

At Avenue Five, as the student approaches their final day in the program, they're able to have take advantage of all kinds of services there for free: Facials, hair treatments, final hurrah's before they're done with school.

Sabrina working on Alyssa's curls

Alyssa went up to school around 10 a.m. She only needed to be logged in a couple of hours to complete her 1500 hours. She had spent her days earlier in the week having facials, etc.. Today, Graduation Day, Sabrina agreed to do her hair.
I had gone over to the Party Store to get a big balloon, a small graduation cap/hair band, and some vinyl letters to go on her car saying, "Congrats!" and "#1 Graduate". I needed Sabrina's help to get Alyssa's car keys since these stickers had to be done from the inside. Alyssa had brought coffee for her friends that morning and parked in the back. Sabrina handed me her keys and the twoof us started putting the decals on the car. We were almost done when Alyssa came out to the back where people were gathered at the picnic tables. Glancing over at her car, I could hear her saying, "Who's in my car?" BUSTED. Oh well, we finished the job anyway and she just shook her head.

After I was done with my botched nearly stealth car decorating, I went back to pick up Grandma and Josh to join us for the Graduation.  Sabrina was just taking down Alyssa's hair when we arrived. Ron met us there and we were all ready.

Josh & the Graduate

with Grandma

With Grandma (Redo!)

We brought Tres Leches Cake into the break room, and spoke briefly to several of Alyssa's teachers. They all talked about how impressed they were with her. She was the 2nd to the youngest in the entire program. And here she was graduating a month early! She had a 104% attendance rate (compare that to her 64% attendance rate when she went to High School). Clearly, she wanted this.  Her grade average was 94. The teachers said she learned quickly, was great with customers, and they really enjoyed working with her.  They all predicted that she would do great in the industry.

By all standards, she was wildly successful at this.

Unbelievably comfortable in front of everyone :)

Giving her speech to the student body

So the time came and it was Alyssa's turn to graduate.  It's interesting how they "do" graduations at Avenue Five. When the graduate has crossed the 1500 hours mark, one of the head teacher/administrators rings a giant bell and shouts, "We HAVE a GRADUATE!" At that point, all of the students and faculty stop what their doing, begin clapping, and head the to the hallway. Once everyone has arrived, including the family, and lined both sides of the hall, the graduate makes the final walk toward the time clock to "clock out" for the last time. Usually, they run! When Alyssa did, the other students threw confetti on her as she did. Then there's this pause, and everyone applauds as the Graduate returns down the hallway to make her speech. And, in Alyssa's case, more confetti. She thanked her family - and got a little teary with us. Then she moved on to her friends who had come back to watch her graduate as well as her friends from the other classes. She spoke to each teacher, thanking them and reminding them of some little shared experience. I was completely shocked at her ability to do this. All week long I kept nudging her, asking her if she needed to prepare something to say. I had flashbacks of when *I* had to speak at various functions as I was growing up - times when I froze or just couldn't do very well. She kept brushing me off, saying she'd just wing it.  I had been there for several speeches in the past. Most were very brief and the graduate was clearly uncomfortable speaking in front of a group.  Not Alyssa!  She did go to the store to get some Thank You notes - she wanted to write to each teacher that she really liked. That might have helped her bring some ideas to the front of her head, but she did great! She was so comfortable and just talked - to the entire student body. She was a Natural public speaker.

And, here's Alyssa's Graduation Speech. She told Josh she didn't want him to record it, so he quickly handed the phone off to me. It was just aimed in her general direction, but turned out good.

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*Be forewarned that this starts out LOUD! It's the students throwing confetti 

and cheering for her as she runs for the time clock!

Lots of Hugs...

After the speech, everyone hangs out to hug the graduate. It's very sweet. I'm sorry so many of these were blurry, because they were so nice to Alyssa. I'm going to include them anyway!

   

Little Reception after the Speech...

Tres Leches Cake after the Speech

Tres Leches Cake - "Happy Graduation Alyssa!
                          YOU DID IT!"

Roses from Josh




               Alyssa's friends came in for cake and we hung out there for a little bit. 


       Afterwards, we went to Hyde Park Bar and      Grill for  dinner. From there, Alyssa met Roxy 
and Sabrina for Happy Hour...somewhere. 


What a great day!! I'm so proud of her!

Like her Graduation Cap?

The 2 youngest students! Alyssa and LaurenV

Robin, Ms. Linda, and Alyssa

SCHOOL FRIENDS

Callie joking around with Alyssa

Dinner at Hyde Park Bar & Grill with Our Graduate

Katie's Graduation from NYFA

I had no intention of actually going to up to New York to help Katie pack out of her dorm room. I didn't realize they were having an "official" graduation. I knew they were having something to commemorate the end of the year at the New York Film Academy, but I didn't realize it was an actual graduation. As the time rolled closer, I spoke on the phone with one of Katie's friends who lives in the dorm with her. He was telling me that his parents were there and they were sightseeing and suddenly it dawned on me...this IS a big deal. Turns out, Katie had downplayed it a bit - I think she was all too aware that her year in Manhattan was a pretty pricey deal. So she didn't want to ask me to fly up and stay in New York again. As I poked around at the details of the weekend though, it was clear (to me, at least) that this was something I didn't want to miss.

So, there I was on Friday afternoon, needing a flight the next day, the earlier the better. And I found it!  I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't even get a hotel room until we were driving to the airport on Saturday morning - at 5:30 a.m.!

Anyway, when I landed at Charlotte for the connecting flight, I decided I needed to clue Katie in. She was making plans for her day and I didn't want to somehow get squeezed out! She was so surprised - and so happy I was coming!

After some confusion at the hotel (never try to get a reservation while you're driving to the airport that same day!), I met Katie at her dorm and we walked to The Barking Dog. Katie and I had eaten there when I first left her at the dorm last fall, so this seemed apropos!

After dinner, we took a cab down to Union Square, where the graduation would be held. But we arrived a little early, so we walked across the street and wandered around the Farmer's Market You can see one of the NYFA campus buildings in the larger picture here. The weather was lovely, so in spite of the Saturday afternoon crowds, this was great!


Then... on to the Graduation!

NYFA had a lovely reception set up, prior to the festivities. We were still full from our dinner, so we skipped the food. Katie introduced me to all of her friends - Section G. At NYFA, they are grouped into a section and then they stay together for the semester for all of their classes. I had heard about most of them through phone calls from Katie throughout the year, so it was nice to actually meet them!

After the reception, we went to the auditorium where we watched 15 minute short reenactments from films we all knew. Usually, the actors were paired up and Katie was in 2 of the final film performances, The Great White Hope, and The Fighter.

Accepting her diploma!

She warned me that the language was pretty bad - but I was pretty surprised to hear how BAAAAAD it really was!!! Add to it that she had had the flu during the shooting, so her voice was a little raspy. It added to the effect, I think!

Her Shakespeare teacher told me that he thought Katie was good enough to stay in New York and find work. But she really wants to head over to Los Angeles to take the 2nd year of Film Acting. NYFA has a campus at Universal Studios, so that sounds pretty exciting. Plus, she'll end up with an Associate's Degree and Katie's excited about that!

Katie's fellow students also gushed over her acting abilities, how they loved working with her in various scenes, and just how incredibly talented they think she is.  This was really one of the reasons to step out and see how she'd do in New York. We knew she did well as a Big Fish in a Little Pond....but how would she do as a Little Fish in A The Big Pond? I think it was clear - she did just great!

I'm so proud of Katie! She did a great job fending for herself in New York City and had a wonderful learning experience at NYFA.

 Katie wrote a blogpost about her last semester: Birthday, Sick, Final Performances, and Home for the Time Being. She has a lot of pictures up there, so that's fun to check out.

On stage with her section

 THE GRADUATE!