Memorial High School’s graduates cheered each other on at commencement ceremonies held June 18 at 6 p.m. inside the Memorial Athletic Complex at 55th Street and Broadway. The night was bittersweet as it will be the last time they are gathered together after sharing four years at West New York’s only public high school.
With West New York Mayor Silverio “Sal” Vega, Superintendent of Schools Robert Van Zanten, and Principal Robert Sanchez looking on, the estimated 330 graduating seniors cheered in excitement as their friends and family members crowded the aisles with digital and video cameras.
The school band and choir heralded the occasion with performances, none more stirring than choir teacher Addie Luers conducting Memorial students for the last time, since she is retiring. Luers, a resident of Cliffside Park, was met with farewell hugs and well wishes from her students as they stepped down from the platform.
“I was thrilled with what they did – I couldn’t have asked them to do any better,” Luers said with pride. “I really had a lot of joy in seeing them grow over four years.”
What is her advice for the graduates? “Keep music in your life and – it sounds so trite, but – to keep looking at the bright side, stay up, about life, about yourself.”
After receiving her diploma, valedictorian Yanna Daud said, “It feels amazing. I’m so proud. I’m very happy. I’m very emotional. I’m sad to leave my friends, but very happy for my accomplishments.”
Over the weekend, Daud said she would be celebrating another graduation: “I’m having a surprise party for my father who graduated.”
As her father graduates from medical school, Daud is graduating from high school and will be continuing her education, following her father’s example, as a pre-med student at St. John’s University in Queens, N.Y. this fall.
In her valedictorian address, Daud spoke of the diversity of her graduating class, “Some of us are the first in our families to graduate high school, and some of us, like me, have come here with our families from other countries.”
Daud also reminded all who were about to leave the “Memorial family” that this was not an end, but a beginning: “One door closes while another opens.”
After Daud’s speech, Mayor Vega took the podium, passionately emphasizing the importance of pursuing goals and knowing that whatever the graduates want to do, they can achieve it.
“You have the ability to become whatever you want,” Vega declared. “Dream, dream, dream! And reach for the sky!”
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