TOLEDO, Ohio — Ava Ersig is one of the many 2020 graduates whose senior year looked a bit different because of the coronavirus.
"We wanted to have our prank day and our graduation and everything. We had a graduation online so that was nice," Ersig said.
She is a graduate of Start High School, although she spent most of her senior year at Owens taking courses for college credit.
Now that she's done, she will be joining the Ohio National Guard.
"It was kind of a tough decision, honestly. I thought a lot about things that I wanted to do and I was more towards wanting to be a vet. Then I wanted to work on airplanes," the graduate said.
Her mother, Sarah Ersig, said she's enjoyed remote schooling because it's given her more time with her daughter before she leaves.
She said she's proud of Ava's decision to join the National Guard.
"(I'm) very proud of Ava; very proud of all my children for various reasons, but having a brother in the Marine Corps and then her going to the Ohio National Guard is a real honor," Sarah said.
Ava said her older brother definitely helped lead her to joining. She will leave for boot camp in Texas the first week of June. When she's done with that, she'll resume her schooling while continuing to serve.
Ava said when she gets to Texas, she will have to self-quarantine for two weeks. Boot camp will also have social distancing and other sanitizing guidelines in place to keep everyone safe.