The weather smiled on the Martha’s Regional High School Class of 2015 Sunday. It was as perfect a Vineyard day as one could wish. Life for the 160 graduates who marched up on stage to receive their diplomas will not always be sunny, but on that day, surrounded by proud family members, friends, and teachers, the outlook was bright.
The wider Martha’s Vineyard community can also take pride in the accomplishments of the class of 2015. Island taxpayers invest heavily in education — close to $50 million in the fiscal year about to close, on a system that employs 550 employees and educates more than 2,100 students, according to outgoing Superintendent James Weiss — and we may hope that the start in life provided these students will pay dividends in the future.
Many will seek higher education. Others will join the job market. Some will enter the military. They will move forward in their endeavors with a sense of community that is becoming rarer and rarer in society, one which some in this class may not fully appreciate until later in life, when they look back on the bonds they formed growing up on a small Island.
One can learn much about this latest crop of students and the experience of growing up on the Vineyard from the remarks they delivered Sunday. Those speeches are included in a special graduation section published in today’s issue of The Times.
The common themes were parental and community involvement.
“I wouldn’t be here without the support and compassion of my teachers, community members, and most importantly my parents,” Valedictorian Samantha Potter said. “Even amidst their own hectic schedules, my parents were a constant presence that I could rely on, and even if they couldn’t help me with my BC Calculus homework, at least they tried.”
How reassuring to hear that parents still count. Irrespective of all the studies and government programs spent devising new methods of education, the basic ingredient is an involved mom, a dad, or a teacher.
Josie Iadicicco, student council president, highlighted the class of 2015’s accomplishments: “We have left our legacy in the form of broken athletic records in sports like track and tennis, Gold Keys for award-winning art, and national and regional recognition for the literary magazine, Seabreezes, and the school newspaper, The High School View.
“We connected with our community through outreach programs at Windemere, and events like the CROP Walk and the Relay for Life. Some of us will be traveling to Washington, D.C., this summer to accept an award for the MVironment Club, in recognition of its outreach program at Island middle schools. Lastly, the actors of the class of 2015 have given stunning performances at this year’s productions of Into the Woods and Twelfth Night.”
Josie recognized the groundwork that nurtured her class, including those residents who regularly turn out to cheer on student athletes and attend school performances, and in doing so provided her classmates with a springboard into the future: “We have not done this in isolation. The support of a community that values education has allowed us to flourish and realize our potential. From elementary school teachers who guided us in our early years to members of the community who have shown their support by attending our games and performances, we have felt your devotion, and are deeply grateful.”
Class essayist Charlotte Potter spoke about the experience of learning and maturing as she made the transition from middle school to high school.
“The past four years held a lot for us. It was the first time we fell in love, and got our hearts broken. We discovered that the friends we made in middle school would change, and the new ones we made would last far longer than the tan lines we sustained in our final summer together. We struggled to find who we are, and hoped that by some desperate chance we would make it out of this mess alive.
“Now look at us. They told me high school would go by fast, but I never knew how true this warning was. It seems like just moments ago, we walked into the high school terrified of the change, but eager to face the new challenges. Today we have the same expressions as we look toward being a first-year again, in whichever path we choose: the first year in college, in the workforce, or as a world traveler.”
Our new graduates head out into the world. The rushing river of life that started out as a small Island brook will continue to speed them along into the future. We wish them all the best.