![\"Teenagers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779973809_379_.jpeg\"\/)
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Michael Minasi<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Sixty high school seniors walked the halls of Dawson Elementary this week. They had a chance to reminisce about their grade school years and the teachers that made an impact on them at a young age.<\/p>\n
During senior walks, graduating 12th graders get to retrace their steps through the halls of their elementary schools as they prepare for their next steps. It\u2019s an opportunity to reconnect with former classmates and teachers who had a big impact on them, while also inspiring younger students.<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Ocampo was the only senior wearing a black cap and gown, since he is graduating from Johnson High School in Hays CISD. Ocampo and his family drove from Buda so he could do his senior walk at Dawson. <\/p>\n
“I felt like the school shrunk. I swear the gymnasium was humongous, but it\u2019s tiny. And same with the library,\u201d he said. “It was just really interesting seeing how small the school is. I thought it was huge when I was little.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779973810_114_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Michael Minasi<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
KUT News<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Ocampo said he remembers the classroom at Dawson Elementary where he learned to draw stars. He also remembers walking into his kindergarten classroom with a new haircut \u2014 a star buzzed on the side of his head \u2014 and his teacher celebrating it. <\/p>\n
Ocampo\u2019s grandmother and great aunts also attended Dawson. His mom, Beverly Acosta said Dawson provided a safe space for her son during a time of a lot of changes in their family. Acosta said she still sees him as a kindergartner walking the hallways, even though that was more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n
“It puts in perspective how much he\u2019s grown, not just physically, and that the space around him now just seems so much smaller,\u201d Acosta said. \u201cBut to know how much he\u2019s grown as an individual and a young man. It\u2019s pretty special to walk through here and put all that together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing together<\/p>\n
One after another, seniors walked down a hallway decorated with student art that resembled what they made years ago. They walked past a mural of flowers that read “growing together.\u201d Once in the courtyard, they took a last look at a big oak tree casting shadows over picnic tables. As they walked through the school, younger students stood outside their classrooms, giving high-fives. <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779973811_43_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Michael Minasi<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
KUT News<\/p>\n
Travis Early College High School graduates paused by a pond during their senior walk through Dawson Elementary School. The hallways and green spaces that once seemed immense, took new dimensions as they came back to the school as young adults. [DID THEY SAY THIS?]<\/p>\n
Teachers smiled and greeted the seniors. Some seniors stepped out of the line to hug the teachers that marked their grade school years, including Susana Torres.<\/p>\n
“This was their foundation, here at Dawson,” Torres said.”We hope that we provided them with a solid foundation when we sent them off to middle school and into high school. But seeing them come back here and walk our halls, that\u2019s just so rewarding for us as teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eight out of 10 students at Dawson<\/a> are economically disadvantaged, and almost 70% are considered at risk of not graduating from high school. Two out of 10 graduates<\/a> from Travis ECHS \u2014 a high school Dawson feeds into \u2014 don\u2019t graduate on time. <\/p>\n Torres said senior walks are an opportunity for elementary students to feel inspired and know they can also walk in a cap and gown one day.<\/p>\n “I do think it’s very much needed and especially [in] the school that we work in and the population that we mostly serve here,\u201d she said. “I just think that it’s something that they can aspire to. I feel like then they’ll say \u2018That’s what I wanna do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The last class of seniors<\/p>\n During his senior walk, Ocampo remembered his first days at Dawson, when he learned there was no nap time in kindergarten. He also remembered the sticker vending machine that used to be outside the principal’s office and the classroom where he learned how to draw a star. He thought about the importance the school had in his life.<\/p>\n “This is when our brains are more malleable. Our brains are [the] most mushy, most impressionable,\u201d Ocampo said. \u201cAny environment where a little kid is brought up is important for who they become in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Acosta said it\u2019s sad to know her daughter, Ocampo\u2019s sister who also attended Dawson, won\u2019t be able to come back and have a \u201cfull-circle kind of closure moment\u201d like her brother did. But Acosta said she is also happy that she got to do it with one of her kids.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have my son be one of, or be part of the last senior class out of here is pretty special,\u201d she said. \u201cWe hate to see it go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travis Early College High School seniors dressed in red caps and gowns fiddled with their tassels and stoles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[432,132,134,17882,1685,133,434,112527,6802,3603,109713,4522],"class_list":["post-312358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-aisd","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-independent-school-district","tag-austin-isd","tag-austin-news","tag-budget-deficit","tag-dawson-elementary","tag-school-closures","tag-school-funding","tag-senior-walk","tag-south-austin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}