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Grateful Basalt graduates head to future after commencement ceremony

Around 100 students graduated on Saturday in Basalt

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Austin Colbert

Caps are tossed into the air to conclude the Basalt High School graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Basalt.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

Without doubt, each and every Basalt High School student who graduated on Saturday had something to be grateful for.

This is especially true for Zealand Lane, who was left fighting for his life last Labor Day after suffering a traumatic brain injury following a Sting concert in Snowmass Village. He had to be airlifted to Denver and would spend weeks in recovery.

With a broken skull and bleeding in his brain, Lane’s “dreams were up in the air.”

“For the first few days, I was unable to walk, I could not see straight, I couldn’t eat anything without sending it right back up onto a cold hospital plate. There were conversations about taking a year off, missing my senior basketball season, postponing college, and re-thinking all of my plans and dreams,” he told the crowd during his speech as one of the head students.

“With the unwavering support of my family, friends, teachers, and with the commitment of doing whatever it takes to recover, I was lucky,” he continued. “I had a great basketball season, got into college, and I stand before you now.”


Lane, an aspiring engineer, was one of roughly 100 students to walk across the stage on Saturday as part of the BHS graduating class of 2025. This was a group that began high school still entrenched in a pandemic, their own futures as uncertain as Lane’s last fall.

But, together, they overcame and will move forward having left their own mark on the school and the community.

“Rather than let a challenging start to high school bring them down or tear them apart, it only served to strengthen them and bring this group of students closer together,” BHS principal Megan Hartmann said. “The class of 2025 epitomizes the beauty that exists when people feel valued in their own uniqueness. They have connected with each other across different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs. They respect each other and appreciate the value of different perspectives.”

After graduating senior Jennifer Carrasco sang the national anthem, Hartmann made introductions, and head students Lane and Elias Schendler addressed the audience, the torch was passed to valedictorian Max Lowsky.

Co-head student Zealand Lane, right, with Elias Schendler, gives a speech during the Basalt High School graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Basalt.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Valedictorian Max Lowsky walks across the stage during the Basalt High School graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Basalt.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Students wait to walk across the stage during the Basalt High School graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Basalt.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

“I’m so grateful to have had a strong community around me the last four years,” Lowsky said. “Today, our parents look at us in disbelief, caught between the image of us on our first day of kindergarten and the reality of us standing here today, somehow high school graduates, standing at the trailhead of the rest of our lives.”

The class address was delivered by Mark Grice, a beloved math and science teacher who, like the seniors, is leaving BHS this summer. His physics classes sometimes involved Nerf guns to help students learn about kinetic and potential energy; but on Saturday, he pulled one out on stage, sending harmless projectiles back at the graduates in good fun.

“I realized what an opportunity this was for me. They are all stuck in their seat, I’m leaving this year as well, so what is the school district administration going to do to me, no matter what I say here today? Fire me? Go for it,” he jested. “But instead of making fun of you or my colleagues or maybe making jokes about my ridiculous behavior over these past few years, I decided to say what I really think, and how grateful, how thankful, and how much I owe all of you.”

Outgoing math and science teacher Mark Grice, who gave the class address, shoots a Nerf gun at the students in fun during the Basalt High School graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Basalt.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Graduate Maddie Inglis, back, hugs athletic director Jacob Ashworth after she was named to the Wall of Fame during the Basalt High School graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Basalt.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
A graduate wears a cap that reads “On to the new dream” during the Basalt High School graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Basalt.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

Athletic director Jacob Ashworth delivered one of the final speeches and announced this year’s BHS Wall of Fame awards, which went to Schendler and Madeleine Inglis.

“They set the standard for us all to live by,” Ashworth said. “The Basalt High School Wall of Fame is about more than achievement. It’s about impact. These students represent the very best of what this school, this town, and this class stand for. I hope my own kids grow up to be like them one day.”

Among the speakers was class salutatorian Liam Heath, a passionate and aspiring automobile racer, whose message to his classmates was about pushing on the accelerator and not so much bringing the car back to the garage.

“We often treat graduation like it’s the finish line. The cap, the gown, the cheering crowd. And it’s tempting to think that it is. But if you zoom out, you’ll realize it’s just a pit stop,” he said. “Our stories are still unfolding. Our masterpiece is still in progress. And this moment, this graduation ceremony, is simply a marker and celebration of progress, not completion.”

Roaring Fork and Glenwood Springs high schools also held their graduation ceremonies on Saturday. Aspen High School’s commencement is this coming Saturday, May 31, in the Michael Klein Music Tent.

acolbert@aspentimes.com

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