The Kentwood class of 2009 became part of the future as the students completed graduation exercises Saturday at the ShoWare Center in Kent.

Graduating senior Jessie Genger said, “What an amazing feeling it is to make it to this part of our lives. We have sat through the lectures and taken the tests.”

Genger said as a child she would, “put on my mother’s high heels and try to walk tall. My first lesson was learning I can’t walk in someone else’s shoes.

Class speaker Tim Pham said, “I could say we are the leaders of tomorrow, but we are the leaders of today.

Pham noted the students raised about 30,000 pounds of food for the Maple Valley and Kent food banks.

Each of the students also had money in their graduation caps, which was donated for the fight against cancer.