Grads encouraged to ‘be amazing’

Families, friends laud 79 recipients

PORTLAND — Enveloped in alternate layers of pride and affection, 79 Portland High School seniors graduated from the school this week.

As they did so, they turned a brave face toward the next chapter of their still-young lives.

One such student is Heidi Valk, who will be leaving Portland shortly for an island adventure — to Parris Island, S.C., the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. There, Valk will begin an eight-year commitment to the Marine Corps: four years active duty and then the next four in the Marine Corps Reserves.

It is a dream she has been nurturing since she was a sophomore, Valk said as she posed for photos outside the school with Brenna Currier, a 2016 graduate of the school.

Currier is a nursing student who has already completed two years of training at Manchester Community College.

Both Valk’s great-grandfathers served in the armed forces, as did numerous uncles, she said. Her boyfriend, Jacob Godwin, is an active-duty Marine. Valk hopes to become an intelligence specialist, she said.

After Currier helped Valk into her brilliant red graduation gown, she fixed Valk’s mortarboard in place with bobby pins. Volk had decorated the top of the mortarboard with, among other sentiments, a Marine Corps decal.

The ceremony began with the graduates being

led out of the school by a bagpiper. Portland’s sports teams are known as the Highlanders. The ceremony itself played out in the visitor’s parking lot just to the south of the school.

When the procession arrived at the top of the parking lot, the teachers who escorted them formed two lines so the students could pass between them. As they did, the teachers applauded, back patted and otherwise cheered on their charges.

The parents, families and friends who made up the audience were greeted by Bridget Reddington, student senate president.

The stars that fill the night sky are not identical, and neither are the members of the class of 2018, she said, adding their interests and talents are many and varied, and include both musicians and duck hunters.

“No matter where life takes you, look up the stars and remember the members of the class of 2018,” Reddington said.

Keira Kopchyak, class president, offered her classmates a list of guidelines for the future.

She began by encouraging them to embrace perseverance. It was what got them through school after all, Kopchyak said. What’s more, she said, it brings out the best qualities in a person.

Her other suggestions: “Let things go. Be accepting of others. Some people are not meant to be your friends for life. Don’t let others defines yourselves. Don’t be afraid to fail. Whatever you do, if it comes from the heart, will

never lead you the wrong way.”

Salutatorian Emily Bradshaw said most of her classmates know her as “The girl who sings,” because she starred in several student productions.

“The music department was my second home,” Bradshaw said. “It was where I was accepted for who I am.”

She encouraged many of her fellow students to join those productions. Bradshaw recalled “dragging so many jocks into those musicals. And every one of them loved it.”

Bradshaw said she will never let go of her commitment to, and love of, music, but in the fall, she will begin studying to become a nurse. And so, she said, “I hope you all find something that gives you a sense of purpose.”

“Advance confidently in the direction of your dreams,” Bradshaw said, quoting from Henry David Thoreau.

Valedictorian Yang Li offered a playful remembrance of her four years at the high school, where she repeatedly found herself saying, “I don’t know.”

But what Li did know was: “I actually enjoyed high school. I enjoyed working backstage on ‘Mary Poppins,’ old computers are dangerous. Sometimes, they catch on fire.”

Principal Kathryn M. Lawson said, with the exception of her own children, “I couldn’t be prouder of all of you.”

Board of Education Chairwoman MaryAnne Rode added a grace note as she thanked school department employees, most especially the teachers.

“Thank you for being there for our children when we cannot,” she said.

And then she sent the graduates on the way with a message from the heart: “Go out and be the amazing people we know you can be.”

And with cheers, applause, air horns, and even an occasional siren rung by Portland firefighters, the class of 2018 set off to do just that.

Jeff Mill / Hearst Connecticut Media The evening began with the graduates being led out of the school by a bagpiper, appropriately so, with Portland High School’s sports teams being known as the Highlanders. Here, students congregate for the commencement ceremony.