As her community plans to commemorate the anniversary of a tornado that destroyed huge swaths of town, and killed more than 150 people, graduating senior Taylor Mann says, "I didn't know what a community could be until I saw Joplin come together." 

Mann is part of Joplin High School's class of 2012. They went to school at the Northpark Mall because their school was so badly damaged in the storm.  She says even though they weren't able to finish their high school careers in the classrooms where they began, students received a brick retrieved from the rubble of their old school as a memento.

It's been strange to go to school in the mall, but Mann tells HLN's Robin Meade that the class of 2012 has a sense of humor about it. "We are the graduating class of the mall," she says smiling. "We had a lot of fun this year.  As hard as it seemed, we tried to make it the best of everything."

Mann will graduate tonight at a ceremony that will feature President Obama delivering the commencement address.

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