Hunter Whyte, of Canaan, N.H., plays a quick game of flying disk before the graduation ceremony at Mascoma Valley Regional High School in West Canaan, N.H., on Friday, June 8, 2018. Whyte plans to attend New England College, where he will study criminal justice. (Valley News - August Frank) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Hunter Whyte, of Canaan, N.H., plays a quick game of flying disk before the graduation ceremony at Mascoma Valley Regional High School in West Canaan, N.H., on Friday, June 8, 2018. Whyte plans to attend New England College, where he will study criminal justice. (Valley News - August Frank) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com. Credit: Valley News photographs — August Frank

West Canaan — Among the 85 seniors who flung their mortarboards of purple and white into the clear blue sky and left the Mascoma Valley Regional High School football field with diplomas on Friday evening, valedictorian Lukus LaBrie is preparing for his freshman year at Middlebury College and salutatorian Raymond Gonzalez for Brown University.

Next stop for Abbagayle Briand and Ryleah Jones, respectively: the New England School of Hair Design in West Lebanon and the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier.

Dozens of others also reported in the commencement program that they’re staying relatively close to home — either joining the workforce; pursuing trades at River Valley Community College or New Hampshire Technical Institute or Vermont Technical College; or attending Plymouth State University, Keene State College, Colby-Sawyer College or Norwich University.

Oh, and during the third week of August, Justin McDonald will drive two days to Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island, then take a ferry to an island that joined Canada less than 70 years ago so that he can study biology at … Memorial University of Newfoundland?

“My parents are from there,” McDonald, wearing the golden sash of a National Honor Society member, explained between hugs with classmates after the ceremony. “That’s where all my family’s from. Now I’ll get to see them more often. My parents moved to Texas and then to New Hampshire when I was 4 months old, so I’ve been here almost my whole life.”

And 12 years in the Mascoma school district, he added, prepared him for the next step in what he hopes will culminate in a career as a surgeon.

“The teachers are always there to help you out,” McDonald said. “And my classmates are great.”

It was a class that senior class president Elizabeth Jones, who is bound for Vermont’s Castleton University, described as becoming “rowdy and a little challenging” when they flooded into Indian River School from Canaan Elementary School and Enfield Village School as fifth-graders.

“Yes, sometimes we were a little loud,” Jones read through her sunglasses. “But we were kind, and also hard workers who know how to have fun.”

Abetting/enabling their fun side for four years was class co-adviser John Sweetland, who arrived at Mascoma three days before the freshmen enrolled, in 2014, to teach social studies.

“It has been my august pleasure to be on this journey with you,” Sweetland concluded after a parade of droll observations and recollections. “As Conan O’Brien said at the end of his commencement address at Dartmouth in 2011, ‘Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.’ ”

David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com.

Mascoma Valley Class of 2018

Aliviene  Adams, work; Waylon Aiken, work; Nicholas  Arnold, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Taylor Bailey, work; Tyler Bill; Anthony Bowen; Abbagayle Bradley, New England School of Hair Design; Ian Briand, Western New England University; Ethan Brueckner, work; Aaron Burns, St Lawrence University; Collin Cacciatore, River Valley Community College; Dylan Cederman, work; Dartangnan Collins, work; Emily Coutermarsh, Plymouth State University; Tyler Coutermarsh, work; Maxwell Dacier, work; Morgan Dalton, work; Brandon Dionne, River Valley Community College; Aaron Dionne, Savannah College of Art and Design; James Disbrow, New England College; Bria Dow, Empire School of Beauty; Killian Dowd, University of New Hampshire; Angel Eastman, Plymouth State; Julia Fox, Husson University; Henry Furman, work; Kaelyn Gelinas, Wingate University; Christopher Gill, Coastal Carolina University; Raymond Gonzalez, Brown University; Jasmine Goodale, NHTI; Zoe Grodan, Wheaton College; Logan Hall, work; Alyssa Hammond, Plymouth State; Kayla Hammond, NHTI; Harrison Hinman; Russell Holland, University of Maine; Alex Howe, State University of New York; Megan Jette, University of Maine; Asa Johnson, work; Ryleah Jones, New England Culinary Institute; Elizabeth Jones, Castleton University; Olivia Kinnett, Colby Sawyer College; Lukus Labrie, Middlebury College; Morgan    Longley, Keene State; Raeleigh Mansur, work-LNA/MA; Seth Martin; Christian May, NHTI; Hanah McAndrew, work; Justin McDonald, Memorial University of Newfoundland; Madison Merrihew, Husson University; Oscar Michetti, University of North Dakota; Paxton Morley, University of New Hampshire; Austin Morton ; Raymond Moses, work; Emma Mulherin, RVCC; Jacob Newberry, work; Johnathan Newcity, work; Torey Newman; Henry Noyes; Aidan O’Connel; Morgan Parrish, work; Jordan Peck, Roger Williams University; Andrei Potapenko, UNH; Kyle Roberts, military service; Dylan Rock; Abram Rock; Sarah Ruel, RVCC; Olivia Salamy, Clarkson University; Laurel Saulnier, RVCC/UNH; Brenton Sawyer; Owen Schneider, UNH; Emmaka Selby, Plymouth State; Benjamin Shields, Norwich University; Ryan Stapelfeld, National Guard/law enforcement; Spencer Stebbins, Vermont Technical College; Kerrigan Stone, Colby Sawyer College; Tori Sweet, UNH; Olivia Taylor, College of Charleston; Sydney Thompson, University of New England; Lincoln Tracey; Tyler Tremblay, Nashua Community College; Kylie Tuttle, RVCC; Miavictoria Velez, work; Tyler Warner, work; Hunter Whyte, New England College; Nicholas Williams, work.