Woodstock
The 18-year-old honors student will instead catch a plane to Costa Rica on Sunday to help restore a corridor of rainforest, just one of the many volunteer jobs she will have performed for Change the World Kids, a nonprofit organization in Woodstock.
“Throughout the year, we do a lot of community service in Woodstock and the greater community,” Bohen said prior to joining her classmates at commencement in the outdoor amphitheater. “It was a great way to get involved.”
Bohen, an Upper Valley Waldorf School graduate, started volunteering for Change the World Kids in seventh grade, something that helped ease her transition into the Woodstock school system. She said she could have chosen to attend a different high school, but Woodstock made sense.
“I enjoyed that it was a smaller environment than some of the bigger schools that I had shadowed,” Bohen said. “I wouldn’t have changed it.”
Her administrators spoke highly of her, one saying Bohen has “all of the parts and pieces of the people we want and need for the future.”
“When she finds something that she is passionate about, she really works hard at it,” another school leader, Narissa Edwards, said this week. “She is one of those kids that tries to make sure everyone is included.”
Bohen’s confidence, maturity and leadership skills have grown tenfold throughout the four years Edwards has mentored her as a school counselor. Bohen will attend Skidmore College in the fall, and possibly study psychology or neuroscience.
Bohen and her twin sister, Spruce, were two of 86 students to graduate from Woodstock Union High School on Friday evening.
Spruce Bohen, the class’ salutatorian, gave a speech during the 90-minute ceremony, and likened the fluidity of the last four years to the nearby Ottauquechee River.
“We are at the junction of transition of the many rivers of our lives,” Spruce Bohen said. “I encourage you all … to let yourself flow and embrace the changes coming.”
Valedictorian Jonas Kantola took a moment to thank faculty, family and friends before encouraging his classmates to go on and “do amazing things.”
“Let’s see what we can do,” Kantola said.
Senior class President Alden Krawczyk lightened the mood a bit. He got off his chest that he had left the building without signing out a few times and touched on the freedoms that come with graduating, such as never having “to ask to go to the bathroom.”
Senior class adviser Virginia Dean offered words of wisdom for the graduates at the outset of the ceremony. She started by getting down to earth a bit, saying “Don’t believe everything you hear. We are not going to tell you that you can do anything you set your mind to. You can’t necessarily be whatever you want to be. You’re not the last best hope for planet Earth.”
She then turned the tenor of her speech.
“There is something you should know and that is you are truly amazing. You should follow your dreams and you should never, ever give up. … Some day everything will make perfect sense,” Dean said. “For now, laugh at the confusion, smile through your tears and keep reminding yourself that everything happens for a reason.”
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.
Woodstock Class of 2017
Jack Richard Arthur, travel; Ezra Owen Astbury; Hunter Thomas Balch, Armed Forces; Patrick Stephen Bald, University of Notre Dame; Courtney Beatrice Barcomb; Benjamin Peter Beaudoin, Norwich University; Alexander Kenneth Blaiklock, Castleton University; Loretta Lea Blakeney, Castleton University; Heather Mary Blanchard, University of Maine; Evan Read Bloch; Spruce Catherine Bohen, Occidental College; Teale C. Bohen, Skidmore College; Colby Stewart Bridge; Andrew Kenneth Buchan-Groff, University of Vermont; Mimi Soleil Templeton Callaghan, The New School: Eugene Lang, Global Studies; Collin Joseph Campbell, Johnson State College; Lars Cody Carnehammar, Western New England University; Cody R. Chase, Chase Site Services; Emily Elizabeth Chase, Chase Site Services and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; Tyler Bruce Chynoweth, Lyndon State College; Spencer Allen Cole, ArborScape; Logan Christopher Cox; Mckenzie Day Dalton, Florida Gulf Coast University; Lily Alice D’Anna, Simmons College; Anna Amelia Dieffenbach, St. Lawrence University; Jamie DiMauro, music; Lily Katherine Lee Doton, University of Vermont; Jason Steven Drebber, University of Vermont; Teresa Mae Ennis, travel; Brandon K. Filiault; Sarah Marie Findeisen, Lafayette College; Nathan James Fraser; Erika Grace Gebhardt, Georgetown University; Rosalie Smith Geiger, Lehigh University; Kyle Jacob Hansen; Forrest Mills Harrington; Stephanie Elizabeth Hendrick; Molly Marie Henne, Plymouth State University; Alex David Hirak; Jarrett Anthony Hoisington College; Olivia Kendall Holbrook; John Quest Holding, Lyndon State College; Evan J. Hotchkiss, Vermont Woodworking School; Samara Anna Hutt, Suffolk University; Luc S. Issa, Castleton University; Miranda Elizabeth Johnson, Connecticut College; James Andrew Kamb, University of San Francisco; Jonas Matthew Kantola, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Robert Alden Krawczyk, Castleton University; Oakley Fletcher Lemire, University of Colorado Boulder; Curtis Emery Lessard, Vermont Technical College/UVM; Mariah Elizabeth Luce, Endicott College; Darian Marie Magner, Castleton University; Emma Christine Maiden, St. Lawrence University; Jenna Marie Majeski, Northeastern University; Taalyr Storm Marsh; Grace Darling McKeon, Plymouth State University; Alexander Nicodemus Merseal, Lyndon State College; Hannah Monroe Milstone, University of Vermont; Calli Ann Mistkowski, Child Care; Oscar Santos Montaño, Community College of Vermont; Madison Taylor Moore, Plymouth State University; Devon Quinn Mumford, Castleton University; Brittany Lee Nelson, Community College of Vermont; Rose Marie O’Brien, University of Vermont; Elizabeth Anne Olsen, Berkeley College; Evan Darrell Patch, Air Force; McKayla Elizabeth Potwin, travel; Sarah Marie Pushee, Johnson State College; Kyle Ronan Rasmussen, University of Colorado Boulder; Sam Willis Raymond, travel; Daniel Lewis Robinson, St. Lawrence University; Cailin Grace Saggese, travel; Jacob Michael Sawyer; Madison Paige Schulz, Norwich University; Chancellor Michael Smith, music; Violet Sofia Spann, The New School: Eugene Lang; Taylor Marie Tolar, McNeese State University; Eleas Alexander Tsouknakis; Hartley Oliver Stow Walker Money, Marist College; Holly Weglarz, University of Findlay; Erik James Weiss, Northeastern University; Cole Mikael Wescott, University of Idaho; Michaela-Cassidy Wimett, travel; William Walker Wood, St. Thomas More School; Sarah Elizabeth Yates, Wheaton College.