Orford
“You are all leaders in many different ways,” co-valedictorian Quenla Haehnel told her classmates. “In the classroom or in the hallway, in the basketball court or in the robotics competition, people look up to you.”
At least 300 family members, friends and mentors filled the school gymnasium to watch the Class of 2016’s commencement, the stage and its occupants draped in green and white.
Co-valedictorian Jennifer DeBois called her class an “eclectic and all-encompassing group of unique individuals,” and stuffed her speech with her classmates’ achievements.
The 37 graduating seniors met with success in art, athletics, artisanship and college academics, she said, and many of these students scored coups well beyond their years.
One student took and passed a Dartmouth College class, earning an “A” and an academic citation for merit. Others organized a trip to Guatemala, built a robot that won prizes in both of the Twin States, and set school records in sports.
Sitting onstage with the 2016 class was Trillium Cserr, a member of the 2017 class who graduated early, according to the commencement program.
At times, the teachers and administrators who might have been expected to advise the soon-to-be graduates seemed instead to be in awe of them.
Keri Gelenian, head of schools and principal at Rivendell, went so far as to compare the students to Muhammad Ali.
The late boxing legend, who died on June 3, was known as a walking contradiction: a fighter who spurned the draft, an African-American activist who entertained white audiences, a poet who had trouble learning to read.
“You’re as great as Ali,” Gelenian told the class, whose members he said had held together, despite superficial differences. “He would have loved you guys.”
Language arts teacher Eric Reichert gave the keynote address at the request of the graduating class. The students had asked him to appear, he said, no doubt knowing full well his phobia of public speaking.
But “my fear in speaking here today,” he told them, “is not the fear of plummeting with this podium to the floor below, or the fear of hearing the quiet vibration of snoring coming from the cluster of caps and gowns.”
“The true nature of my fear today is this,” he said: “I have just this one last chance … to express to all of you just how much love and admiration and respect we have for you as students, as members of the community, as human beings.”
Reichert said he had no advice to offer — only thanks.
“Your lives have made all of our lives infinitely better,” he said.
With that, the class marshals directed the seniors to rise, row by row, and take the final steps of their high school careers.
As graduates accepted diplomas and awards, no fewer than three met their parents on stage: DeBois, who is School Board Chairman Marc DeBois’ daughter; Corinne Lyndes, daughter to School Board member Bruce Lyndes; and Talar Gelenian, whose father is the school principal.
After the graduates sat back down, Christina Robison, an English teacher at Rivendell and one of the class advisers, had the last word.
The beauty of working in a small school, she told them, has been that she got to know every member of the 2016 class. She remembered when they arrived, fresh out of middle school and sporting braces and the “ghosts of haircuts past.” And now, she told them, she saw “mature, articulate, self-possessed young adults.”
Robison gave the advice that Reichert deferred: “Let the world know you as you are — not as you were.”
Outside of this tight-knit community, Robison said, the graduates will meet people who know nothing about them. Take advantage of this, she told them.
“Your slate is wiped clean.”
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.
Here are the members of the Rivendell Academy Class of 2016, as provided by the school: Taylor Ann Acheson, University of New England; Meghan Elizabeth Boardman, Belmont University; Maija Matilda Bradley, University of Vermont; Jonathan Robert Burke, summer training with NH police cadet academy; Makayla Arlene Coffin, Montana State University; Cameron Ross Day, Franklin Pierce University; Jennifer Leigh DeBois, University of New England; Heather Brook Dexter, Johnson State College; Nathaniel Joseph Dimick, Brandeis University; Shania Lynn Garrow, Plymouth State University; Talar Antonia Gelenian, University of Vermont (Honors Program); Brian Andrew George, Johnson State College; Carly A. Ghio, Lyndon State College; Zackery Todd Gray, U.S. Army; Maxwell A. Green, Kenyon College; Quenla Haehnel, Brigham Young University; Raiza Inigo, exchange student; Samuel Michael Kamel, Coastal Carolina University; Weston Andrew Knowlton, mission in Santa Rosa, California for two years/Brigham Young University; Katana Cheyanne LaBadie, gap year; Megan Ann Landgraf, Marist College; Ryan Michael Landgraf, Quinnipiac University; Erin Kelly Lapine, Army National Guard and New Hampshire Technical Institute; Shay Marie Lapine, Community College of Vermont; Corinne Evelyn Lyndes, Saint Michael’s College; Curtis Arvin Manning, horticulture; Dakota Hunter Joseph Menard, Lyndon State College; Jeremy Breton O’Leary, employment; Jacob Christopher Perkins, Thomas College; Montanna Rae Pierson, pre-college preparation program; Austin Mitchell Pushee, employment; Nikkita Lee Scott-Roberts, undecided; Kimberlie E. Sobeck, Drew University; Cameron Alexander Surprenant, Montana State University; Hayley Gloria Taylor, Champlain College; Noah Weisberg, Jr., employment; Nicole Ann Wurtz, LNA certification