How Hollister High School Improved their Ceremony Experience While Cutting Run-Time in Half

Ryan De La Rosa is going into his third year running commencement at Hollister High School. The city of Hollister is a one‑high‑school town in California: about 3,700 students total, with a graduating class that runs 800 to 850 seniors most years. The ceremony itself pulls in 8,000 to 9,000 people.

Since adopting Tassel in 2020, Hollister has cut their ceremony run time nearly in half. "We reduced our graduation time from four to five hours to two and a half hours," Ryan shared and attributed it to the stage software itself. "A big chunk of it is you're able to just scan and go."

But speed wasn't the only goal. "The product allows us to make it fast but slow at the same time, where you can still get a good photo and it's still memorable for the students. So it's the best of both worlds."

Budget savings in Tassel’s Expert package

Cutting the ceremony time down didn't come at the cost of the graduate and guest experience, and Ryan credits both the stage software and the digital program for that. Upgrading to Tassel’s Expert package where he could get access to the digital program service started as a practical fix to a printing budget problem. "We do a hybrid now. There's 8,000 chairs that we rent out, and to print out 8,000 programs is just not doable. So we print out a fraction of programs, but then supplement the rest with the digital program."

Tassel's digital program offering launched in 2025, and last year was Ryan's first year running the hybrid approach. He printed signage with QR codes to point guests to it, with Tassel's team converting the program into a website he could link to. "We got the HTML code I needed for a website and then the finished product. So I put it on sandwich boards around the graduation site." The response to the new setup was positive. "I wanted to gauge how the public liked it, and it was great feedback."

Why Tassel’s service is what sticks

For Ryan, the platform's features are only part of the story. He also shared the significance of the team behind it. "I got to highlight the dedicated customer support," he said. "I almost feel like I annoy your team, because I'm like, ‘hey, this kind of doesn't work, or can we change these dates?’ And they're just so open to adjusting and getting everybody on a call."

He put it plainly when asked what mattered most. "You can have the best features in the world, but when it comes down to it, it's the service that matters most to graduation coordinators. We're all busy. You guys don't even make me think about it. We just jump on a call. Problem solved."

Building on what's working

"The goal of graduation, at least in our district, right, is to make it as memorable as possible," Ryan shared. And looking ahead, he’s excited to explore more of Tassel’s graduate‑facing features, “the graduate slideshow, graduate video and the graduate photos caught my eye and I want to see how I can implement that next year.”

For Ryan and his team, it all comes back to creating a graduation experience students will remember. With each season, there are new opportunities to make that moment even more personal, meaningful, and memorable for every graduate who crosses the stage.