Seventeen valedictorians and memories unique to the Eagle experience highlight emotional commencement. WATCH THE FULL CEREMONY HERE
FOLSOM — As the evening sun settled behind the hills overlooking Eagle Stadium on Friday, hundreds of graduates in blue caps and gowns gathered one final time as students at Vista Del Lago High School.
For four years, they filled Eagle Stadium student sections with clouds of blue powder, packed school dances, competed for championships, performed on stage, led clubs and organizations, volunteered in their community and built friendships that stretched across campus. On Friday night, the Class of 2026 gathered one final time as students before becoming Vista Del Lago alumni.
The experiences that shaped their high school years—from Friday night football traditions and Spirit Cup competitions to academic achievements, performances and countless inside jokes—came together in a commencement ceremony that was equal parts celebration, reflection and anticipation for what comes next.
Before a packed stadium of proud parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers and supporters, 443 graduates officially became Vista Del Lago alumni. Throughout the evening, speakers reflected on a class defined not simply by academic achievement, but by perseverance, friendship and the shared experiences that transformed a group of freshmen into a graduating class.
The ceremony began with the traditional processional to “Pomp and Circumstance,” followed by a welcome from ASB President Apurva Moola, who immediately acknowledged the significance of the moment.
“Making it here tonight is a big deal,” Moola told her classmates. “We have officially beat the battle of senioritis.”
The crowd laughed, but Moola quickly shifted toward a deeper message about what had brought the Class of 2026 to graduation day.
For some students, she said, the challenges came in the classroom. For others, they came through athletics, performing arts, leadership commitments or personal struggles that few others ever saw.
“Maybe your struggle looked different,” she said. “Maybe it was the late-night rehearsals that felt never ending. Miss Lopez’s Spanish homework that literally took years off my life. Model UN conferences that made you wonder almost every single time what the actual point was. Tough losses on the field that you never heard the end of in the morning.”
What united the graduates, she said, was not that the journey had been easy.
“We didn’t arrive here because the journey was easy,” Moola said. “We are here because the journey was actually hard.”
As she looked out across her classmates, Moola reflected on the countless moments of stress, frustration and uncertainty that accompanied the high school experience. Yet she argued those struggles were precisely what gave meaning to the accomplishments being celebrated Friday night.
“Something has dragged us down, hurt us, or made us doubt ourselves,” she said. “And yet, here we are today.”
That reality, she said, is what made graduation so meaningful.
“Nothing meaningful exists without effort. Nothing valuable comes without sacrifice. Nothing has meaning without struggle,” Moola said. “The joy of today exists because of everything that came before it.”
She pointed to shared experiences that connected the class, from late nights preparing for rallies and performances to difficult athletic losses and stressful AP exams.
“Stressing out about the AP Calc test, late nights at rally run-through where everyone was complaining together, losing football games together,” she said. “Because of those struggles, the victories meant more.”
Moola encouraged graduates to embrace the challenges awaiting them beyond high school, reminding them that growth often emerges from discomfort.
“There will be moments where you feel like giving up instead of pushing forward,” she said. “Every challenge leaves you with a choice. You can let it make you bitter or you can let it make you better. You can let it define your limits or you can let it reveal your strengths.”
The message set the tone for an evening built around reflection and optimism.
Following a land acknowledgment delivered by Prisha Jalan, Helina Nebiyu and Esha Ravikanthi and a performance of the National Anthem by senior music students, Principal Phillip Leonhardt took the podium for what marked his first Vista Del Lago graduation ceremony as principal.
His remarks focused on a theme that would echo throughout the evening: endings and beginnings often arrive together.
“When you reflect back on the book of your life, you’re now in a climactic chapter,” Leonhardt told graduates. “Graduation marks a turning point in your story. We are here celebrating an ending while stepping forward toward a new beginning.”
Leonhardt shared a story from Vista’s final rally of the school year. After passing a symbolic crown and microphone to the next student leader, one of the school’s PRCs turned to him and quietly said, “Well, it’s over.”
The music had stopped. Students were beginning to leave the gym. The energy that had filled the room moments earlier had disappeared.
In many ways, Leonhardt said, graduation carries the same feeling.
“He was right,” Leonhardt recalled. “The rally was over. And tonight, high school ends too.”
Yet what remains, he said, are the things that truly matter.
“The friendships, the laughter, the lessons and the memories, those will live on forever.”
Leonhardt reminded graduates that every meaningful transition in life comes with uncertainty. Four years earlier, many had arrived on campus carrying fears about fitting in, finding friends and navigating an unfamiliar environment.
Now, he said, they were facing another new beginning.
“Endings are not something to fear,” Leonhardt said. “That is because endings create opportunities and they force us to grow.”
He encouraged graduates to view the future through the same lens they used when they first arrived at Vista.
“Four years ago, you walked onto this campus carrying those same doubts, and look how far you’ve come since then.”
Whether graduates are heading to college, careers, military service, trade schools or opportunities not yet fully defined, Leonhardt said the same principles that guided them through high school will continue to serve them.
“As I look at this graduating class tonight, I see people who’ve already accomplished so much individually,” he said. “More importantly, I see those who create hope, build community and make others feel valued.”
His advice was simple but powerful.
“Be kind, work hard, stay curious, listen more than you speak, and never underestimate the impact you can have on another person through integrity and compassion.”
Leonhardt also thanked students for making his first year leading Vista Del Lago a memorable one.
“I love you, Class of 2026,” he said. “I could not have imagined a better group of young people to start my first year as principal with.”
The heartfelt comment drew one of the evening’s warmest rounds of applause before Leonhardt reminded graduates that commencement was not an ending, but the beginning of a new chapter.
“This ending is not the conclusion of your story,” he said. “It is simply the turning of the page.”
The evening also highlighted a remarkable academic accomplishment.
Academic excellence stood as one of the defining characteristics of the Class of 2026. The school’s recognition of 17 valedictorians reflected a graduating class that consistently excelled both inside and outside the classroom, demonstrating the depth of achievement represented throughout Friday night’s ceremony.
When Leonhardt later asked the Class of 2026 valedictorians to stand, the crowd responded with sustained applause as 17 students rose to their feet.
Those students included Ira Borkar, Viren Doshi, Ruby Cleerman, Anya Gopalakrishnan, Emily Harrop, Mason Higgins, Hana Huynh, Meyer Lathe, Dylan Le, Abigail Lin, Lenna Moore, Alekhya Nallagangu, Allen Nguyen, Siddharth Ray, Alessandra Seghesio, Dustin Wagner and Benjamin Wang.
Representing the group at the podium was Wagner, whose address became one of the evening’s most memorable moments.
Rather than focusing on grades or academic achievements, Wagner reflected on the shared culture and experiences that defined the Class of 2026.
Referencing Johnny Cash’s famous recording of “Folsom Prison Blues” at nearby Folsom State Prison, Wagner began exploring the idea that every place has a song that captures its identity.
“I’ve been thinking about what our song is because every great place has one,” Wagner said.
At first, he joked, the answer seemed obvious.
“Every single person on this turf knows exactly what happens the second that song hits at a school dance,” Wagner said while describing the now-legendary dance floor mosh pits that became a staple of Vista student life.
“The crowd parts, the mosh pit opens up, and nearly 2,000 teenagers run toward each other at full speed in a way that no school dance has ever fully recovered from.”
The crowd erupted with laughter.
But Wagner argued the Class of 2026 could never be defined by a single song.
Instead, he said, the class was connected by thousands of moments that only fellow Eagles could truly understand.
“Our song is a collection of moments that nobody outside of this class will ever fully understand.”
The observation perfectly captured a theme that surfaced throughout the evening: many of the moments that seemed ordinary at the time had become the memories graduates would carry with them for decades.
He described Friday nights at Eagle Stadium when students crouched together in anticipation before launching clouds of blue powder into the air as “Goosebumps” played through the stadium speakers.
“One song, one drop, one sky full of blue,” Wagner said. “Because at Vista, we don’t just wear it, we bleed it.”
He recalled Eagle Eye News broadcasts playing every Friday morning during advisory and the way entire classrooms would suddenly become quiet when “Games with Gav” appeared on screen.
“Our song is Eagle Eye News playing in advisory every Friday and the entire class going dead silent the second Games with Gav started,” Wagner said.
He remembered food drives where student government members aggressively campaigned for canned goods in exchange for votes.
“Our song is the student government kids screaming at you for a can of green beans during the food drive.”
He celebrated spirit days that saw students carrying school supplies in everything except backpacks and countless inside jokes that drew knowing laughter from classmates throughout the stadium.
He also reflected on a class that entered high school after spending critical middle school years learning remotely on laptops during the pandemic era.
“Our song is doing middle school on a Chromebook and somehow showing up to high school still knowing how to make friends.”
Yet beneath the humor was a message about community.
Wagner celebrated the way students from different backgrounds, interests and experiences became one class.
“Our song is the kid getting a five on the AP test, sitting next to the kid running the diversity council, sitting next to the kid throwing the powder at the football game,” Wagner said. “And somehow none of it ever felt like different worlds.”
His conclusion drew one of the evening’s loudest ovations.
Twenty years from now, Wagner said, members of the Class of 2026 will not need long explanations to reconnect.
“It won’t matter whether one of you yells across a parking lot, hums the first eight notes of Goosebumps, or lets out that famous squawk,” he said. “We’ll both be right back here.”
Following a performance of the farewell song “I’ll Always Remember You” by senior music students, Senior Class President Macie Spoto took the stage.
Like Leonhardt and Moola before her, Spoto addressed uncertainty—not as a weakness, but as a natural part of life.
“As we sit here today, there’s one question I’ve been dying to ask,” she began. “Are you ready?”
Students may have been ready to leave behind crowded lunch lines and school traffic, she joked, but she challenged them to consider a different question.
“Are you ready to be done growing, done making mistakes, done being curious?”
Spoto admitted she once believed graduation would bring certainty.
“Junior Macie would kill to know what she was doing after high school,” she said.
Standing before her classmates Friday night, however, she acknowledged that she still did not have every answer.
That realization, she explained, had become comforting.
“Just because we are graduating here today doesn’t mean we have to know everything.”
Spoto reminded graduates that many of them felt the same uncertainty when they first arrived on campus as freshmen. The nervousness they may be feeling now, she said, is simply another version of that same experience.
“If you’re feeling that same feeling as we graduate high school, know you made it here today and everything was okay in the end,” Spoto said.
The future may still hold unanswered questions, she explained, but graduation itself was proof that growth often happens before people realize it.
Drawing inspiration from a quote she discovered online, Spoto offered graduates a message that resonated throughout the stadium.
“Everything will be okay in the end,” she said. “And if it’s not, it’s not the end.”
Looking back, she said graduates would likely forget many of the things that once seemed critically important.
What would remain were the memories.
The late nights spent preparing for Spirit Cup competitions. Sold-out performances. Shared classroom moments. Athletic triumphs. Friendships.
She highlighted accomplishments across campus, including section championships won by girls soccer, boys and girls golf and wrestling. She celebrated new cultural traditions such as Black History Month celebrations and Dia de los Muertos events, as well as successes in school spirit competitions and student activities.
“These are the moments we are going to remember,” Spoto said.
Her message ended with perhaps the evening’s most hopeful reflection.
“This isn’t the final version of us,” she said. “You’re still becoming, still growing, still changing. The best days of our lives haven’t even happened yet.”
While the evening celebrated achievements rooted in the Folsom community, the reach of the Class of 2026 extended far beyond city limits.
Among the 443 graduates was Donovan Rizzo, a foreign exchange student from Pieve del Grappa, Italy—Folsom’s sister city.
For the past several months, Rizzo attended Vista Del Lago while living in Folsom with City Councilmember Sarah Aquino and her husband, John Aquino. Friday night’s commencement marked the culmination of an experience that connected two communities separated by thousands of miles.
His father, Ermanno Rizzo, attended the ceremony in person at Eagle Stadium, while his mother and other family members watched from Italy through the Folsom Times livestream broadcast of the event.
Following graduation, Donovan and his father will soon return home to Italy, taking with them memories of a remarkable year spent in Folsom and a lifelong connection to the city and classmates who became part of his story.
Before diplomas were presented, Leonhardt returned to recognize the valedictorians, National Honor Society members, military-bound graduates and student board representative Adi Luong.
He then formally certified that the Class of 2026 had fulfilled all graduation requirements established by the State of California and the Folsom Cordova Unified School District.
Representing the district’s Board of Trustees, YK Chalamcherla accepted that certification and formally authorized the awarding of diplomas.
“It is with great pride we authorize the award of their graduation diplomas,” Chalamcherla said before inviting families and friends to celebrate.
One by one, graduates crossed the stage to receive their diplomas. Then came the moment they had anticipated for years.
Led by Moola, graduates participated in the Last Tassel Ceremony, moving their tassels from right to left as cheers erupted throughout Eagle Stadium.Moments later, hundreds of blue mortarboards soared into the evening sky as the Class of 2026 officially became Vista Del Lago alumni.
For one final moment, the graduates stood together in the place where many of their most memorable experiences had unfolded. The stadium that had hosted so many of the class’s defining moments became the setting for one final memory together.
Then, just as Leonhardt had reminded them earlier in the evening, they turned the page and stepped into a new beginning.
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