What started as a unique, COVID-era innovation has become a six-year graduation tradition for a charter high school in Key West.
On May 23, Somerset Island Prep’s Class of 2025 throttled across Key West Harbor on jet skis to accept their diplomas from Principal Tom Rompella, who was also in a graduation gown — and also on a jet ski.
Rompella handed out the scrolls with a mechanical gripping device while families and friends cheered and snapped photos from the nearby Sunset Pier at Ocean Key Resort.
The commencement ceremony started traditionally enough, as 24 graduates processed in a line to their seats on the pier, where speakers discussed the students’ accomplishments and the possibilities still to come.
With the formalities finished, the class donned life jackets over or under their graduation gowns and boarded jet skis donated by Fury Watersports, which has sponsored the event since it began in 2020 when social distancing requirements demanded an alternative solution to a crowded graduation ceremony.
