Time machine: Graduating Yorkville seniors parade through their old elementary school

With the library door decorated as a time-machine portal, Yorkville High School seniors dressed in their graduation regalia, paraded past a line of kindergartners entering from the opposite direction at Grande Reserve Elementary School in Yorkville.

Graduating senior Ivy Pesola joined 41 others, parading through the same hallways they did when they were all first graders. Students at the elementary school lined-up the hallways, cheering and high-fiving the seniors as they marched throughout the school to applause.

“I hope to really inspire the students, they all had wide-eyes and were glimmering,” Pesola said. “We did our best to make a legacy for ourselves in high school and I hope we set a good example for them.”

The procession on May 15 often slowed as a senior would jump out of line to hug a teacher they previously had at the elementary school.

Pesola will be attending Ohio State University to study marketing. She said seeing familiar faces helped her appreciate how formative those teachers were in her life.

“It was super nostalgic and wholesome seeing all the teachers again,” Pesola said. “Being in the hallways again brought back so many good memories. I’m so excited for the young students to experience all the things I did. I had the best time growing up here.”

Laughing with Pesola, graduating senior Isaac Iga listed off several names of teachers he was astonished to see again. Iga plans on pursuing musical theater with a minor in marketing at North Central College.

“It was surreal, I was very excited to see the teachers we had,” Iga said. “The teachers and staff here do such a great job cultivating all our dreams. Mr. (Michael) McHugh has been my biggest advocate since day one. It’s why I’m pursuing musical theater. He helped me believe in myself.”

The inspiration Iga felt in the school was so strong, he returned as an intern to help with the school’s musical education program.

“I get to know the kids and encourage them to follow their musical dreams,” Iga said. “I helped inspire a student to pick up the guitar for the first time, I told him he would flourish.”

Iga and Pesola acknowledged one of the familiar faces, Grande Reserve Elementary School principal Michele Breyne, who was their assistant principal several years ago.

Breyne joked with Yorkville High School principal David Travis about so many of the teachers trying to snap quick photos with the returning seniors.

“We’re so happy to have them back, the connection is really important from where they start to where they’re ending up,” Breyne said. “Knowing what those kids worked hard for, I’m hoping it’s an inspiration to the kids we have now.”

Breyne said she wants to save the video of the kindergartners passing through the time machine doorway past the seniors for when they themselves become graduating seniors several years down the road.

Travis agreed with Breyne that seeing the returning seniors inspire the younger generation was a self-enriching experience for the teachers as well.

“I always say, in education we build cathedrals, we don’t always get to see the finished product, but we know our kids go on to accomplish wonderful things in life,” Travis said. “It’s such a payback for teachers to be able to see what they become. It’s why we do what we do.”

Travis helped organize both the “Senior Walk” at Grande Reserve Elementary School and another Senior Walk for graduating seniors who attended Bristol Grade School.

“We talk a lot to our students about legacy and leaving the place better than when they started,” Travis said. “When you start as a Fox, you end as a Fox.”