Fresno Unified high school students getting ready to celebrate their graduation

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- High school seniors across the Central Valley are grabbing their caps and gowns ready to celebrate a major milestone this month.

Edison high school students practiced their posture and formation as they take to the floor of the Save Mart Center. Edison has its largest graduating class ever this year with 530 students.

"It is a lot of moving parts with a lot of excitement, emotion, and it's special, but it's going to be fast paced and energetic and we're just excited for all of them," said Lindsay Sanders, Principal of Edison High School.

Principal Sanders describes this year's graduating class as competitive and motivate, with nearly 90-percent of the students heading to a four-year university.

"So we have huge numbers going to college. We have kids going to Columbia, Stanford, we have a girl that's going all the way to Princeton, we have UC Davis we have them going all over the place so we're real excited this year."

Graduating Suma Cum Laude, Samira Abed is giving what she hopes to be a loving and humorous speech Monday night. She's excited to move on to her next chapter in life, adding that Tuesday night represents the culmination of a lot of hard work and perseverance.

"I would describe the road as both long and hard. It was-- I had a lot of support a lot of people were there for me, and I won't say any names but I'm thinking of them right now."

The Save Mart Center will host seven of Fresno Unified's high school graduation ceremonies this week. After Edison students take the stage, Hoover High School's graduating seniors will get their diplomas-- kicking off a week full of high school commencements.

Eddie Moraga showed up to watch his son practice his commencement walk. He said his son did a lot of hard work to get to this point.

"Trying to hold the tears back you know, and I'm sure we're going to be crying this afternoon and just real excited. He's my only son, so it's a big accomplishment for us as parents also."

Hoover High School's graduation ceremony will start at 8:00 p.m. at Fresno State's Save Mart Center.