Angled shafts of late afternoon sunlight broke through the day’s worrisome gray clouds as the time for Bromfield’s 135th graduation drew near. An hour before the June 6 ceremony, families and friends were gradually filling the seating area, cameras of all shapes and sizes at the ready.
A festive setting for graduation
Sounds of laughter and conversation rose and fell. People walked toddlers and dogs. A game of Frisbee broke out. Music by Kenneth Lin provided a pleasant, festive background for the celebration. Flower arrangements from the Garden Club of Harvard bedecked the entryways, the podium, and the diploma table.
A brisk breeze off Bare Hill Pond threatened to send mortarboards flying. But there were no mishaps as the 101 members of the Class of 2014 slow-stepped up the central aisle to the song “The Best Day of My Life” and took their places on the risers at the front.
Bromfield Principal Jim O’Shea recalled that the Class of 2014 had declared that they intended to be “the best class ever.” And he congratulated them for applying “passion, commitment, and work effort” toward that goal.
Foster shares life lessons
Retiring history teacher Kevin Foster, who has been at Bromfield for 14 years, was the evening’s keynote speaker. Foster spoke to the seniors of lessons learned in his own life, acknowledging that they were not new ideas but “as old as Rome and Cicero,” passed on from one generation to the next.
Foster described how, during his own school years, a dean had told him, “We never do know where we are going to end up.” And, a few months later when Foster found himself out of music school and in the army, he had realized the dean was certainly right. Life can take many unexpected turns.
While he was in the army, Foster said, a sergeant told him, “Nice guys finish last.” Foster rejected the usual interpretation of this saying because he said he had never found that there was a downside to compassion. He praised the many ways the seniors had shown compassion in their community projects. But, Foster said, the saying was useful if it was interpreted as meaning, “Don’t be a jellyfish; have a spine!”
Foster also told students to find the thing they are passionate about. “Fan that spark,” he told them. “… Grab the brass ring.”
As Foster concluded, applause broke out, and a parent remarked, “He’s the kind of teacher everyone should have.”
Student speakers reminisce, look ahead
Carly Williams and Niki Margaretos, the student keynote speakers, were introduced by Principal O’Shea. Williams is class vice-president as well as a member of the Model UN club and several other school groups. Margaretos has served as an EMT and is an accomplished athlete and scholar.
Williams told her fellow seniors, “We are more than a class; we are a family … we watch out for each other.” She joked gently about the class’s “extreme difficulty with due dates,” but described her classmates as loving, genuine, and well-rounded people who have made a difference in their school.
Nikki Margaretos, one of the keynote speakers, addresses the crowd. (Photo by Sam Jackson)
“We are about to start writing our own stories,” Margaretos said. She described Harvard as a safe haven where students were able to grow and learn from their mistakes, so that they were now ready to move into the larger world. Referring to the song by which students had marched in, Margaretos urged them to “make this the best day of your life–so far!”
Seniors then sang the class song they had chosen, “1,000 Miles” by Vanessa Carlton.
Salutatorian Martina Stadler recalled a range of experiences the class had shared over the years, from entering Bromfield as timid sixth-graders to dropping water balloons in eighth grade to their current graduation. Throughout, she said, they had learned the value of persistence. The important thing, Stadler asserted, was to “respond in a positive way” to life’s inevitable difficulties and failures.
“Doing well and doing good are different things,” valedictorian Katya Schweigerhausen observed in her talk. Like several speakers, Schweigerhausen took time to thank many of those who had helped her along her way through school. And, having seen the effort that goes into the school budget while she was a student representative with the Harvard School Committee, she expressed her gratitude to “this community that every year gives funding to the schools.”
Principal O’Shea told the gathering about the awards and scholarships that had been given at an earlier assembly to members of the Class of 2014. Retired math teacher and Bromfield trustee Dennis DeGara presented the Bromfield Trustees Awards to Ryan Kennedy, Katya Schweigerhausen, and Martina Stadler. (See complete listing of awards, p. 11.)
Chairwoman SusanMary Redinger of the Harvard School Committee, Superintendent Joe Connelly, and O’Shea then handed the graduates their diplomas. As the names were called out, bursts of applause erupted from different parts of the audience, as family members and friends paid tribute to their own graduate.
In a last gesture of gratitude, representatives of the senior class presented flowers to language arts teacher Miranda Miller, the class adviser. O’Shea also thanked all who had helped put the joyful graduation together.
Finally, blue and white mortarboards flew into the air. And to the tune of “Send Me on My Way” by Rusted Root, members of the Class of 2014 went on their way into the world.
