Greatness awaits Beacon grads
With sun making cameo, future looks bright for Class of 2017
After what had seemed like an eternity of rainy skies, 52 members of the Class of 2017 at the Beacon Charter High School for the Arts found the sun shining on them as they entered the St. Ann Arts and Cultural Center for graduation ceremonies.
The church bell high above tolled as they did and the family members and friends on the former church’s steps, and assembled inside in its pews, smiled broadly as the soon-tobe-graduates marched to their seats.
It was a fitting ceremony, their Principal Michael Skeldon offered, for a class he described as “looking very much toward the future.”
The video presentations the graduating members had displayed on screen the night before as their graduating projects proved that, he said.
“This class is the first to really find a creative way to express their voice,” Skeldon, now the veteran of 12 Beacon graduations, said.
“They were some of the most personal and most creative films we have ever seen and it goes to show how they have found their voice,” he said.
Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt offered the city’s well wishes to graduates as the ceremonies got underway and noted that their success and creativity in the arts may one day become an asset for Woonsocket.
“There are folks in this
“Artists with the skills that you possess are changing the way we think about America and our city will support your efforts in the future and benefit from your successes.” —Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, in remarks to the Beacon Charter Class of 2017
room that will be business owners someday,” she said.
The city, she said, is working on reviving its economy and the arts are sure to play a role in the success of those efforts, she said.
“Artists with the skills that you possess are changing the way we think about America and our city will support your efforts in the future and benefit from your successes,” she said.
Class Salutatorian, Gertrude Daniels of Woonsocket, said that although she always tries to achieve perfection in her school work and anything else she takes on, she has also come to learn through her high school experiences that perfection can be just an unattainable goal. “I try to create perfection in everything that I do, but it doesn’t exist, it just doesn’t exist,” she said. “That is one of the toughest things to accept in life,” she added.
People are just human, she said, and do make mistakes.
“Mistakes happen, so that you can learn from them,” she said. “You can’t learn how to change them, until they occur,” she said.
But people can learn from their mistakes and move forward to what is important in life, she offered.
“The true definition of perfection is to be at peace with yourself and your thoughts,” she said.
She also offered her peers what she said would be the “cheesy line,” about their high school experience, “yes it was worth it.”
The Class Valedictorian, Kelsey Roberts, also of Woonsocket, used her own experiences in life, experiences that were traumatic and challenging, to offer her peers a look at ways to find success even when they experience the bad things in life.
“Throughout the course of our lives, we experience many things that shape us into who we are. Whether these experiences be bad or good, they all have an influence on who we become,” she said.
“High school has been another experience which allowed us to find ourselves while learning many different lessons along the way,” Roberts said.
Roberts said had placed a symbol on her cap in honor those impacted by sexual violence and related that “one in four women are survivors of sexual abuse.
“I am one of them,” Roberts said.
“I know many people here have experienced their own challenges and tonight I have decided to take this opportunity to share my own lessons. I believe my future self would thank me for sharing my story and raising awareness about sexual violence,” Roberts said.
Roberts urged her classmates to keep an open mind about the people “who are amongst us,” because they may never know what those people have experienced.
“It is important to keep an open mind about the people amongst us because everyone has a unique past which makes them into who they are,” she said.
“In the future if anything bad happens to you, you should not let it stop you. Rather, use it as a motivation to better yourself. This is exactly what I did, I wanted to call attention to this to show you to never give up and let anything stand in your way of your goals and your dreams,” she said.
Roberts said she decided to step forward at the age of 11, “when I revealed what was happening to me,” she said. “I made the conscious decision to make purpose of myself and my life. When I entered high school, I told myself I wanted to be Valedictorian,’’ she said. “Anything is possible if you work for it,” Roberts told her classmates.
“While working through our lives, try not to judge others around us and remember there is a reason why somebody is the way that they are. We are the sum of our experiences,” she said.
“If anyone out there has experienced any traumatic event and has not yet found the courage to share it yet, I hope this gives you the courage to seek help,” she added. “Your circumstances will get better, you just have to give them time, trust me,” she said.
“We have to believe in ourselves. We can’t change the past but we can use it as a motivation to make better future decisions,” Roberts said.