In graduation caps and gowns, seniors at Kinston High School provided a preview of Class of 2023 commencement exercises during a recent Awards Day at the school. Four LCPS high schools will hold graduation ceremonies next week.

More than 500 seniors from four LCPS high schools are in line to receive diplomas next week during commencement exercises that begin Tuesday and wrap up Saturday.

In addition to awarding diplomas, the ceremonies will serve to spotlight the achievements of the Class of 2023, which has rebounded from two years of school schedules fractured by the coronavirus pandemic to distinguish itself academically.

The LCPS Class of 2023 – including the 41 seniors who graduated from Lenoir County Early College High School in May – earned $17.4 million in scholarship offers, boasted winners of some of the state’s most competitive merit scholarships and logged a record number of students who will leave high school with a two-year college degree.

Graduation Week begins at Lenoir County Learning Academy, the district’s alternative school, where 10 seniors will graduate. Commencement is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday in the chapel at Kennedy Home, where the school is located. The Rev. Dr. Larry D. Walston Sr., a behavior specialist with LCPS who has served as pastor and worked with youth groups at several churches in eastern North Carolina, will keynote the graduation exercise.

LCLA will also recognize two top students during commencement, one award going to a graduating senior and the other to an eighth-grade student during the event’s Rites of Passage Ceremony.

Commencement exercises at South Lenoir, Kinston and North Lenoir high schools will all be held on Saturday, June 10. Here are the details:

South Lenoir High School – 9 a.m. Saturday, June 10, in the school gym. Tickets are required for admission. Commencement will be live-streamed through the school’s Facebook page. Diplomas will be awarded to 152 seniors, among them David Phillippe, a U.S. Presidential Scholar finalist. Students Gracie Howard and Hailey Jones will deliver commencement addresses.

Kinston High School – 11 a.m. Saturday, June 10, in the school gym. Tickets are required for admission. Commencement will be live-streamed through the school’s Facebook page. Diplomas will be awarded to 160 seniors, among them Morehead-Cain Scholar Derrian Wilson. Wilson and classmate TaTiana Staten-Burns will deliver commencement addresses. During commencement, Kinston High will recognize its N.C. Scholars, cum laude graduates, and the Kinston High School Viking Scholar and Academic Scholar.

North Lenoir High School – 1 p.m. Saturday, June 10, in the gym at Lenoir Community College. Tickets are required for admission. Commencement will be live-streamed through the school’s Facebook page. Diplomas will be awarded to 199 seniors, among them Courtney Humphrey, a Barnhill Scholar. Commencement speaker will be Tamarah Stanley, a 2001 graduate of North Lenoir who returned to teach there and taught at other LCPS schools before moving to Virginia, where she continues to work in education as an administrator. During commencement, North Lenoir will recognize cum laude graduates and National Honor Society members, among other top