The time has come for this year’s Junior Class to hold its traditional Junior Ring ceremony.

The event marks the juniors’ acceptance as upperclassmen. The ring ceremony has been a tradition of the Academy for over 70 years.

“It was way back in the day for me,” said theology teacher and alumna Leilani Asuncion-Tagupa. “I knew that by participating in the ring ceremony as juniors, we now became upperclassmen. So not only did we have a little bit more responsibility, we knew that, this is it, we’re one year closer to graduation.”

At the ceremony, juniors receive a class ring or a pin that is worn on their ties.

The juniors sit with their parents, walk to the front of the chapel and then receive the ring or pin from a parent.

Through the ceremony, many students feel a connection to the school’s graduates, some of whom are their own mothers, grandmothers or cousins.

“The ring ceremony was a nice way to receive an heirloom from your high school days,” said alumna, math teacher Elizabeth Gabriel. “It was nice to involve your parents by having them give it to us and go through the whole ceremony part of it, making it more meaningful than it just being a trinket that you were handed in homeroom.” Gabriel’s sister is also an alumna of Sacred Hearts.

The ring ceremony marks a practice of many schools and is often seen as a way to remember one’s school experiences as well as the time spent with classmates.  

“It’s a beautiful tradition for students, where the ring reminds them that they are part of the Academy family and that they are also now the leaders in the school,” said Campus Minister, Sr. Katherine Francis Miller, also an Academy graduate. “It’s really becomes a wonderful memento that reminds us of all of the wonderful young women that we shared life with, as well as our teachers and with the school.”