The final day for seniors at Defiance High School is on May 24th, 2023. on this day, seniors will attend an awards ceremony followed by a farewell walk-through that leads through the middle school and high school, then from the high school side, graduates will follow a police escort and parade to the elementary school, after completion of this walk-through, seniors will be free to go.

Senior graduation will have a significant impact on Defiance High Schools’ TV/Video class. In this class, members work together to produce content for the school’s video news outlet, Defiance News Network (DNN) Senior graduation will impact this class because the more experienced seniors will be graduating, which leaves the underclass members to continue without them. This may take some time to get used to, but DNN’s creative assistant/episode publisher, Mrs. Gibson, says, “While the DNN crew will surely miss their Senior members, they have worked hard throughout the year to master new skills in preparation for graduation. Being a semester class, we are accustomed to a certain level of overturn and work hard to ensure that each member is trained in a variety of skills. We don’t fully depend on select members to create episodes. It is a group effort. Our newer members will release their first solo episode this Friday, the 19th, that was produced from start to finish without senior involvement. This is a very strong group and more than capable of putting out some really incredible work. I am excited to see them thrive as they take over.” Gibson also plans to make minor changes to next year’s run. She explains, “Next year there will be some minor changes in how grading is set up to ensure that work continues to be distributed evenly and everyone has an opportunity to try out different jobs and responsibilities in class. Overall, our schedule and process to create episodes will stay the same with a few tweaks here and there to stay more organized and on top of deadlines, as well as to make the class more welcoming and inclusive overall. This being my first year in charge of the class, the whole experience has been a learning process. I am very excited about next year and ready to jump in and work with the incredibly talented group that will start off the fall semester and make it the best season yet!”

Noah Jordan, one of the graduating veteran DNN members, shared his feelings about graduating. Jordan States, ” I am happy to be graduating and I am glad that I can move on to the next level in college.” Jordan was also asked if he thought the non-graduating members would be able to hold up on their own without the seniors, he explains, “Yes I do. However, DNN will change. Instead of being led by myself or Ethan Ingle, it will be put on the shoulders of new students. So while DNN will still be good, it will be different.”

While senior graduation will take away veteran members, it’ll also open up new opportunities for new recruits to join next year. Those who wish to join are urged to do so, there is no need to be worried about not knowing what to do since returning members will be able to help train newer members, this will also open up the opportunity for new segments, skits, episode ideas, and several other things involved with episode production. DNN will definitely be different without the senior members, but they’ve worked hard to train other members, so it shouldn’t be too hard to start back up, there will definitely be rough patches, but as long as the crew sticks together and works as a team, it shouldn’t be too bad.