Commencement 2010

Graduating seniors at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School will march down the aisle of the historic Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs on Sunday, and with any luck it will be between downpours, as it was for those at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School who graduated with the sun shining on their own school grounds last weekend.

The Gazette salutes them all. With nine graduates, the charter school ceremonies were shaped by the character of each student, by simple school traditions which they make their own, and by the community’s joyous support.

This year the Class of Two Thousand and Ten at the regional high school, although far greater in number, is also described as a group shaped by strong individuals. Some in the group have set athletic records — in track, windsurfing, sailing, horseback riding — while others have been recognized by music and art critics at state and national levels, and still others achieved in the classroom, the shop, the kitchen.

As they have grown older, they have grown closer, their student council president says in a front-page story in today’s Gazette; they abandoned cliques and grew as a class community. And these seniors have reached beyond their peers, too, volunteering with the elderly on the Island and with orphans in Africa. They support each other’s individual endeavours, whether on stage, field or afar.

These students have shown they know how to value each other as individuals who play a part in the group.

Their generation has a perspective shaped by environmental concerns (the Earth Summit that was held in Brazil occurred the year most of this class was born), by cross-cultural exchange (Euro Disney also opened that year) and by global geopolitical changes (South Africa voted to end apartheid and create a power-sharing multiracial government the same year; Bosnia and Herzegovina were recognized as independent; and violence flared in Germany against immigrants blamed for its economic problems). As these graduates nursed, Microsoft released its Works program and MTV launched reality television with its strangers-stuck-together show, The Real World. Against this backdrop, members of this generation have been connected to the world and forced to negotiate their personal public and private identities from a very young age.

Lately some members of this class asked the school administration, and amid controversy were finally granted, permission to wear scarves that show where they have come from (specifically Brazil) along with their school robes showing where they are at this pivotal moment in their lives, as together they face the future. These students are negotiating the contemporary world of change with confidence and for the most part with support from their parents, peers and community. This is a coming together to celebrate, that our youth appreciate their individual stories and contributions as part of what makes up the fabric of a community.

Tonight this class of so many admirable individuals meets for class night, where the Island community’s extraordinary generosity to them is made most manifest, through hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships. In many cases, volunteers raise these funds through spaghetti dinners, fishing tournaments, you name it. Such action is an extension of this community’s priority on our young people, shown each year in its care with school budgets at annual meeting time.

This generosity is a hallmark of our community, a trait perhaps forged by our Island home. We must rely on each other. It is a comfort our children know well.

Now these students, these multicultural, technological, talented individuals who have grown to rely on each other, leave that comfort to enter what we all called the real world long before MTV took the name. Out there, Class of Two Thousand and Ten, remember your Island-grown values of friendship, hard work, caring for others without judgment, and you will carry the best of the Island in your heart. It will comfort you wherever you are, when you know great success, and when you face failure, heartbreak or injustice. What is essential you have to celebrate at commencement and always: your hopes, your dreams, your friends and your future.

Best wishes to you all.