It’s a moment every student anticipates: walking down an aisle, stepping in stride with one’s classmates toward a stage that symbolizes their achievements and, what’s more, their future.

It’s graduation. And for one Palmerton Area High School alumna, it was supposed to take place this month.

But, as is the case for graduates across the nation, COVID-19 completely changed the way 23-year-old Janel Tracy celebrated her graduation from the U.S. Military Academy, or West Point.

Instead of commissioning into the Army with her peers, Janel did so at home, surrounded by her family.

But thanks to her mother, Jonice Tracy, that’s not the only recognition Janel would receive this Memorial Day weekend.

Janel graduated from Palmerton Area High School in 2015. She was an involved Blue Bomber, playing basketball, making honor society, and participating in student council. Janel’s softball team even put a district championship win on the books.

Janel took her first trip to West Point when she was a junior. She and a friend went to see Aimee Oertner, a Northern Lehigh area graduate, play for the military academy’s basketball team.

When she came home, Jonice recalled, Janel was enamored with the academy.

“I need to apply at West Point,” she told her mother.

“She absolutely fell in love with it,” Jonice said.

But West Point’s application process was well underway.

Janel spent the summer gathering her materials, including a nomination from a local lawmaker and a fitness assessment. She made the application deadline, but because of the timing, was asked if she’d be willing to begin at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School. She said yes.

Jonice accompanied Janel on a student visit to the prep school.

“I was horrified,” Jonice remembered. “I’ve never been on an Army base, and going through the security and everything - I was a nervous wreck.”

There was another reason Jonice was unsettled. The school encourages independence; students even enroll themselves in a Department of Defense Healthcare Program.

“She’s going to be growing up so quick,” Jonice thought. “It just bothered me.”

But it didn’t bother Janel.

“Mom, I have to get in here,” she told Jonice.

After a year at the prep school, Janel went on to West Point, where she continued to make a name for herself. In 2018, Janel won the Women’s National Club Boxing Championship belt in her division, despite having zero boxing experience before entering the academy.

On Saturday, Janel’s West Point journey came to a head. She was officially commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army.

Her grandfather, Robert Koons, and mother pinned the bars to her blue ASUs (her service uniform). Janel’s 22-year-old sister, Jacqueline Tracy, an ROTC cadet, gave the first salute.

But the day didn’t look exactly as Janel might have imagined it five years ago. Because of the pandemic, she had to take her oath at home, rather than with her class. Soon, she’ll travel back to New York.

She will be quarantined until June, when President Donald Trump is scheduled to address the cadets at a live graduation ceremony.

Swearing in for duty without her peers, Jonice said, was “very disappointing” for her daughter. But she added that Janel kept a positive attitude.

The large, surprise drive-by celebration coordinated for Janel, led by fire engines and neighbors, helped soften the blow.

Janel specified that there were two commissioning ceremonies - one together with her classmates online and another by someone she knows. She said they were a big deal for her because she worked for five years up until that point, but how the in-person ceremony was just going to be a small get-together.

“The community of Palmerton (was there) and they waved flags and gave gifts, and there were lots of people I knew that I hadn’t seen in a while,” she said. “It was heartwarming … I was taken back by what was going on.”

Her mother, Jonice, made it so Janel didn’t know about the extra surprises during the oath. She was seeing people do the “drive-by” celebrations due to the virus and thought it would be a nice way to celebrate her daughter’s accomplishments, as well as another West Point grad staying with them. She didn’t want to embarrass them, so she asked her friends what they thought.

“(My friends) said it would be a great idea,” Jonice said. “I made a few calls, made event page, invited my friends list, and had her and her friend blocked from the posts.”

She said her daughter and Moore were very thankful and surprised, and hoped it was an evening to remember. Jonice said her family was also able to make it for a small picnic they held afterward, which following government guidelines by keeping the gathering to less than 25 people.

“With things on the internet, there wasn’t a guarantee they wouldn’t see it,” Jonice said. “Thankfully, it worked out great.”

Janel thanks her boxing team and her fellow West Point classmates for where she is today.

Having obtained a bachelor’s degree, survived many boxing feats and been named second lieutenant, in her words, “My plan is to see where the Army takes me.”