Strath Haven holds graduation on King Field
NETHER PROVIDENCE » Two-hundred ninety-two Strath Haven seniors picked up their diplomas during the school’s 38th commencement which was held on King Field this past Thursday.
Superintendent Dr. Lisa Palmer, who retired at the end of the school year, said graduation is a testament to the collective endurance and perseverance of the students and the entire school community.
“Through every obstacle that we have faced over the past year, you have all made it here today, and to that, I commend you,” she said.
Palmer noted that students can take a variety of paths and when she graduated high school she went directly into the workforce and it was not until much later in life that she got involved in education.
“Life throws many different things your way, as we know all too well from the past year. Some are challenges and some are opportunities. Your future is not decided,” Palmer said. “Your future is what you make of it. Your future is yours - no one else’s. It is for you to decide, cultivate, and live.”
She also encouraged students to create a future of kindness, compassion, and connection and to create a future in which we all want to live.
Graduate speakers Marie Lowry and Jake Malarkey welcomed those in attendance and noted that education over the past 15 months has been a challenge.
“Returning to in-person school neither of us could ever have imagined being so happy seeing the upper half of everyone’s faces for the first time in over a year,” said Lowry “This past month felt surreal as we regained some of the quintessential high school experiences we thought we may never have.”
She said events like the prom and graduation have given students closure on high school and allowed them to reconnect with old friendships.
Lowry noted that at times it felt like junior year had never happened and proper measurements of time had no meaning.
“But it finally feels like we’re really seniors and ready to graduate,” Malarkey said. “Wherever we are headed in future years, the one thing we learned in high school is that it’s impossible to perfectly predict what lies ahead.”
Student speaker Joseph Malaczewski encouraged his fellow graduates to recall kindergarten and what questions and advice do today’s kindergarteners, the future Class of 2033, have for the graduates.
The advice ranged from calling home to their mommies, taking out the recycling and one from Henny to “smile, be happy, and love one another.”
Malaczewski said he learned a lot from high school and that included the failures but he’s learned from them and those experiences will help make him a better person.
The faculty address was given by English teacher Robert Zakrzewski who offered one more lesson for students as he revised a quote from educator John Dewey that education is life itself.
“Education is preparation, preparation for when life doesn’t go as planned,” Zakrzewski said. He noted the pandemic ruined his plans for what he calls the ultimate play about life not going as planned Hamlet, a character he notes is unprepared to act until it is too late.
“I wonder if Hamlet would have fared better if he first faced the unplanned with you, “he asked. Zakrzewski also noted a number of traumatic events that students endured through their four years at Strath Haven with the pandemic being the most challenging.
“You kept coming back, you kept showing up, asynchronous, synchronous, you found a way of making it here today, I doubt that Shakespeare could capture what that must feel like for you all,” Zakrzewski said. He noted teachers have been preparing you to rise to unfamiliar challenges all along.
“Why? So you’re not as overwhelmed as Hamlet by the slings and arrows of life’s outrageous fortune,” he said. “Rather be free to pursue your vision of the future regardless of all we can never know about tomorrow.”