Sixth-grade teachers at Marion W. Savage Elementary School in Savage are keeping their students' eyes on the prize -- mainly a future diploma from Burnsville High School.  

Every year, they hold a Half-Way to Graduation ceremony which marks the halfway point from the students' first day of kindergarten until their commencement ceremony at Burnsville High School.

Current sixth-graders will graduate in June 2022.

This year's ceremony included student speakers, half a diploma and cake. Student speakers were Harry Clarence, Sami Bowlby and Izabella Worley. Joe Gothard, superintendent of Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191, was the keynote speaker. Students received caps with the year of their high school commencement. Teachers, Mary Sawdey, Alex Tofte and Debra Wurdeman, presented the "half-way diplomas" to their students.  

Related to the event, students wrote letters to their future selves. Their sixth-grade teachers will keep the letters until the students are seniors and then the students will receive their letters in their high school English classes.