‘Be great in your way’
Amid all the changes and challenges, 130 Mount St. Charles grads told to persevere
WOONSOCKET — There were some noticeable changes at the 94th Commencement for Mount St. Charles Academy on Sunday, beyond the blossoming of the Class of 2018 into young adulthood – the ceremonies where held in the Mount gymnasium due to ongoing renovation of Brother Adelard Ice Arena, a new senior award was given out, and Alan Tenreiro was on the stage as the new president of the school.
But even though change was apparent, Mount’s history and commitment to its mission of producing graduates capable of making a difference in the world remains as strong as ever.
Tenreiro shared that belief just before he started the ceremonies in which 130 Mounties would receive their diplomas and turn their sights on a long list of post-secondary educational opportunities and careers.
“It’s my first year with this graduating class and this group made it clear how powerful the legacy of Mount St. Charles is,” Tenreiro said. “For me, they were just such great examples of why Mount St. Charles Academy has such an impact upon the community and the world and why we need to continue for another 100 years as we reach our 100th anniversary year in 2025.”
Tenreiro, who left a post as principal at Cumberland High School to become the academy’s president, is a Mountie
himself, graduating in 1992, and also served as a former teacher and coach and school board member.
Noting his arrival back at Mount was like “coming home,” Tenreiro said “it has been a very special year.”
The Mount family, he offered, has never really changed despite those visible alterations. “It continues to be a very close-knit group that lives out that mission of getting to personally know and value every single kid that is here, and so that is the unchanging principle that will always be Mount,” he said.
The teachers and staff have worked to instill in the school’s students “that once you are a Mountie you are always a Mountie,” and that will help them to live the school’ s motto, Excelsior, always “striving ever upward,” he said.
After the ceremonies got underway, with members of Mount’s graduating class of 1968 leading the Class of 2018 into the gym, the school’s traditional commencement program took hold. Band Conductor Marc Blanchette guided the senior band through “Pomp and Circumstance,” and the Mount St. Charles Select Choir, under the direction of Brittnay Dyer, performed “The Star Spangled Banner” before Deacon Anthony Gagliani, the campus minister, gave an invocation.
This year, Rachel B. Breitenbach was the Mistress of Ceremonies from the Class of 2018 and introduced all the speakers and highlight moments of graduation.
Facing the soon-to-be graduates from the stage, Tenreiro noted how Mount’s faculty, its Principal Edwin Burke, and the staff pushed the class members “hard” toward their successes “because they and everyone else in your lives, want the best for you.”
But in addition to academic success or success in athletics and other activities, the Class of 2018 also must find success in something else, according to Tenreiro, giving back to others.
“I want to go one better than wishing you success. I want to wish you greatness.
“You already have it inside you. You just have to let it out by doing something else you’ve learned at Mount Saint Charles: how to give,” he said.
“Giving unlocks your greatness. When you use your talents, your time and your treasures to help those who live in the shadows of life cast by poverty, or illness, or violence, or ignorance, you become the living image of God’s love,” Tenreiro said.
“The will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourself to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourself and society, that will make the world more human,” he said.
“Be great in your way, whatever it is. Be great for the world’s sake. It needs you.
“But most of all, be great and give for your own sake. Without giving, the biggest successes will always ring a little hollow,” he said.
Offering a bit of wellknown advice, Tenreiro told his first class of Mounties, “we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Congratulations Class of 2018, you are on to great things.”
For his Salutatorian remarks, Matthew J. Melnychuk, focused on what it had been like to be a student at Mount St. Charles Academy and experience the closeness of a school where the teachers and staff know the the students’ names and everyone seems to take on responsibility for some part of Mount’s daily life.
“I think we can all agree, Mr. Burke is no normal principal. He took the time to get to know each and every single student – learning more than just their name and truly establishing relationships with each and every one of us,” Melnychuk said.
Melnychuk also told how his teachers helped him to become more outgoing and even to make it possible for him to be on stage Sunday giving his speech.
He also pointed to the many contributions of his fellow graduates and the differences they made in the lives of others.
All of those experiences will continue to make a difference in the graduates’ lives as they head forward into their futures, according to Melnychuk.
“No matter what changes in our lives, everything we’ve experienced these past four years is embedded in our hearts,” he said. “Physically, Mount might finally renovate that fourth floor, or add hardwood to the gym or modernize the arena, but the spirit of Mount, forever unchanging, will live on vicariously through all who have been lucky enough to walk through these doors,” Melnychuk concluded.
Class of 2018 Valedictorian Julia M. DiSpirito looked to herself and her own personal challenges of her senior year to offer her classmates a message that they should move ahead while believing in themselves and also believing in what they will be able to accomplish.
Just six months ago, as the pressures of her senior year arrived, DiSpirito said she began to lose weight, too much weight, and felt weak and tired.
“I was obsessed with applying to top colleges, taking the hardest classes, putting perfection over happiness,” she said.
At first DiSpirito said she found escape in running, her form of mediation, but when that wasn’t enough she stopped eating properly, stopped being herself.
“I was a sponge, soaking up the expectations and opinions of others and living them as my own,” she said. “I was afraid of trusting myself, afraid of being my own person,” she said.
“If you told me I was good at writing I’d write you a novel, if you said I was good at running I’d win a race, but if you asked me to be me, I wouldn’t know what to do,” DiSpirito said.
“It’s sometimes frustrating to realize that as humans, we grow from the struggle, from the hard times. Yes, the good days are better, they’re what we choose to remember, but the struggles are what really shape us into who we are,” she said.
As her senior year continued, DiSpirito said she came to terms with herself on what she wanted as goals.
“I learned about myself. I learned how to reflect inward and think about who I really want to be,” she said. “It’s easy to dwell on the expectations of those around us. To simply fit the mold shaped by society. But the challenge – the challenge is to create your own mold, to shape yourself, to create the world you want to see,” she said.
“So I challenge you to become who you believe you are. Be someone you believe in. If that someone is an artist, be an artist. If it’s an athlete, be an athlete,” DiSpirito said. “Whether you’re a carpenter, musician, or lawyer, whether you’re outgoing or an introvert, whether your male or female, moving faraway or staying nearby – just be who you believe you are and do it with confidence,” she said.
DiSpirito told her peers that the Class of 2018 on Sunday was making its “first step towards our transition to the adult world.
“Decisions will no longer be made for us,” she said. “We can take the easy route and follow the path, or we can create our own path as we change the world,” DiSpirito said.
In his message to the graduates before awarding them their diplomas, Burke said he wished to personally thank them “for the many ways in which you taught me lessons of warmth, support, forgiveness, leadership and courage.”
Each of the graduates have grown over their time at Mount, he noted, and their parents were likely experiencing “bittersweet memories,” of the times they had been dependent on them for all their needs.
The class members, he said, would be taking with them the many lessons they had learned at Mount, lessons of academics and lessons of faith and compassion for others.
Pointing to the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta, Burke offered “we cannot all do great things, but we call all do small things with great love.
“I know and firmly believe that if you remain true to these lessons that you have learned here and to the vocation which God calls you, you will find joy in your lives, Burke concluded.
As the ceremonies concluded, DiSpirito was presented with Mount’s Excelsior Award. Evan McWilliams in turn was named for the All Mountie Award, and for the first time it was given, Teresa Girard was honored with the Ametur Cor Jesu Award for exemplifying the “Catholic mission and identity of Mount St. Charles Academy, as well as the charisma of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart and their motto to love the heart of Jesus.”
As she wrapped up her own role in commencement, Breitenbach told her peers to “think about everything we have done throughout our lives that has enabled up to get to this point, homework, sports, clubs, service, jobs, classes, studying.
“Take these actions and accomplishments and continue to pursue them: we can completely change our lives and world once we set our minds to it,” Breitenbach said.