Fond memories, aspirations for the future punctuate the 120th Kennett High School Commencement as biggest class in school history graduates
By P.J. D’Annunzio, Staff Writer, KennettTimes.com
Hats fly in the air as new graduates of Kennett High School celebrate during the closing moments of Friday's commencement.
KENNETT SQUARE — As the sun began to sink in the evening sky on Friday, aspirations and spirits rose as the class of 2011 processed down the steps of Kennett High School to “Pomp and Circumstance.”
“Your accomplishments have served as a testament to hard work, dedication, and commitment,” KHS Principal Michael A. Barber said looking on the first graduating class in Kennett history to exceed 300 students.
As expected, the multitudes of family members and friends gathered in front of Kennett High, in spite of oppressive humidity, proceeded to cheer and join in congratulatory applause for their graduates.
Kennett High School principal Michale Barber addresses commencement, Friday.
“It is my privilege to speak on behalf of the generally good-natured and accomplished individuals before you,” Class President Alessandra Piscitelli said in her address to the audience, “I could not have hoped to grow up with a more diverse and welcoming group of people than the class of 2011. We matured together, we created relationships with each other, and taught one another life lessons we will never forget.”
The applause led way to the first student speaker, Lindsay C. Reidl, who commented on the joy of completing high school, “Today is the day we can finally scream out to the world that we’ve made it,” she said to her enthused peers.
And though the journey of high school can seem like an eternity, Reidl observed that time just happened to “run out from under us as we blinked.”
Kennett High School principal Michael Barber congratulates a graduate during Friday's commencement ceremony.
Following Reidl was student speaker Alexandra B. Rizzo, whose student career has spanned across the nation, attending high schools in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Maryland.
“I have been to four other high schools,” she said, “I have never been around another group of people that have made me feel so welcome and comfortable in such a short period of time.” Rizzo went on to describe the day-to-day existence of a high school student filled with both good days and naturally, bad. “That is where our friends came in,” she continued, “this year the friendships I’ve made and seen others make are some of the strongest I’ve ever had or witnessed.”
Kennett High School Principal Michael Barber, Kennett Consolodated School District Superintendent of Schools Dr. Barry Tomasetti and members of the school board look on during Friday's graduation.
On a humorous note Laura E. Davidson offered her reminiscence of the first day of high school and her take on new beginnings, “When I was a freshman coming into high school I thought, ‘I can’t go to school with these people, they look so much older than me.’ Now as a freshman going into college I’m thinking, ‘I can’t go to school with these people they look so much older than me!’” Davidson, however, reassured her graduating class that despite the intimidation of taking the first steps into adulthood, they would be taking these steps “not as individuals but as a group.”
The last of the four student speakers, Taylor A. DeVoe, recalled the lessons she learned not only in the classroom, but in from the people around her. “We remember holding a friend’s hand during the blood drive; we learned compassion. We remember fans painting their chests for sporting games…We remember winning a game that we never expected to; we learned perseverance….We remember dancing to the last song at prom; we learned to live in the moment.”
For the graduates leaving the commencement platform that day, it was truly a moment to remember.
