South Royalton
In his salutatory address, Mackinley George thanked the school employees — the teachers for their support and the custodians for their nightly efforts.
Without their work, “the school would be an absolute mess,” George said, prompting laughter, which would arise again and again during the dignified ceremony, held in a large white tent on the grassy South Royalton green.
George also thanked the community that has “shaped me into the person I am proud to be,” his fellow students, his brother, and the parents in the audience, whose care he and his classmates appreciate “even if we haven’t shown it in the past few years.”
Looking ahead, he urged his classmates not to settle for what’s given to them, and instead strive for greatness. And to keep learning.
“Although I might sound like a dork,” he said, “learning will improve how much you enjoy life.”
Valedictorian Cora Honigford thanked the band for playing at the graduation, as she had for many years, and said she’d had 13 “fabulous” years at South Royalton School, which offers myriad opportunities.
Students can be three-season athletes, play an instrument, or perform in the fall play and spring musical, said Honigford, a trombonist. “You can be whatever you want.”
The school’s “amazing” faculty care about students as people, she told the standing-room only crowd, which included scores of people gathered on the green. And when she needed help, they went out of their way to make sure she received it.
Yet, she said, two issues at the school need to be addressed — a lack of sex education and the low student population.
As they head into the “real world” and college, students must know about contraception and “what consent is,” Honigford said, noting recent news stories about a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
“It’s not a woman problem, it’s a person problem,” she said, and after a beat the crowd erupted into applause.
While she loved her time at South Royalton, Honigford said, its small size creates limitations. With too few students to field JV teams, student athletes wind up on varsity teams, where they may sit the bench until they’re good enough to play. Some classes are so tiny, comprising just one or three students, they lack a diversity of opinions. And the school band has no one playing trumpet, a “pretty crucial” instrument, she said.
In closing, she urged the crowd to support the new plan a study group is designing to bring the school into alignment with Act 46, the state’s school consolidation law. The plan will be subject to voter approval, said Honigford, whose father Geo Honigford is clerk of the South Royalton School Board and a member of the study team, and helped Principal Dean Stearns present diplomas yesterday. “Please vote for your children and for our futures as students. Do not vote for what we have had in the past.”
Guest speaker Bill Goldsworthy, a former longtime teacher at the school, said he was glad to be back in South Royalton and gave a shoutout to the school’s baseball team, which won Vermont’s Division IV championship Friday.
He joked with the students, who between sleeping, studying, after-school activities, social media and other tasks “put in a 30-hour day,” and provided a mnemonic device for the occasion — FOSHACK — which stands for family, opportunity, service, humble, accountability, community and kindness, is “what all successful people must have,” said Goldsworthy, who illustrated each category, using stories and suggestions.
He encouraged the graduates to serve their communities without expecting a reward, be open to unanticipated opportunities and embrace challenges.
“I truly love each and every one of you and couldn’t be more proud of a class,” Goldsworthy said.
Also during the ceremony, the senior chorus bid its farewell with a rendition of the Beatles’ In My Life, and members of the graduating class were awarded dozens of scholarships totaling more than $24,000.
Afterward, the 36 graduates in their royal blue robes and mortarboards celebrated on the green, chatting and posing for pictures with family and friends. With mostly cloudy skies and temperatures in the 50s, their smiles and hugs provided a contrasting warmth.
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.
South Royalton Class of 2016
Here are the members of the South Royalton Class of 2016, as listed on the commencement program:
Jonathan A. Benson, Maxim Nathanael Brown, Ciaran Quill Chase, Mackenzie Ann Dakin, Madison Kate Distel, Amelia Elizabeth Fisk, Brittani Frary, Olivia Gauthier, Channing Walker MacIlvaine George, Mackinley Orion MacIlvaine George, Jocelyn Kristen Hewitt, Cora Mary Honigford, Michael Ernest Howe II, Rhiannon Zoe Howe, Robert Levi Ingham-Welch, Caleb Ingraham, Jacob Jonathan Kinnarney, Joshua Lonzo Kumar, Julianne Hope Lambert, Christopher, Alan Mcdonald Lucas, Preston Lyman, Alexis Haylee Madore, Brie-Anna Elizabeth Menard, Rachel Irma Moore, Nevin, John Post-Kinney, Emma Diane Rediker, Connor Schellong, Laurel Ann Sherlock, Kyle John Spaulding, Summer Ann Spaulding, Max Stearns, Brendan Bradley Striker, Andrew Sypher, Samuel Wesley Thornton, Thomas James-William Woodbury, William Christian Wuttke.