When the Great Bend High School class of 2012 walks across the stage at GBHS’s Memorial Stadium this afternoon and members of School Board hand them their diplomas, they will join and estimated 3.2 million other American high school seniors graduating this spring. Throughout their primary and secondary educational careers, these students were taught by over 7.2 million teachers in over 100,000 schools across America.Many of them will join the 20 million kids in the nation’s college, paying an average of $15,876 per year to attend a public college or university, or $40,633 at a private institution. Others will attend a trade school, go into the military or head straight into the workforce.Indeed, the few short steps those grads take today are the first steps in a much longer journey as they leave home to make their own ways in the world.