Marist High School issued one more diploma at its June 5 graduation ceremonies than was listed on its graduating program.
Along with the 106 expected diplomas, graduates turned around and issued one of their own to Principal Brother Steve Schilitte, who is leaving this year to take a principal’s post in the Bronx.
This was the 53rd annual graduation ceremony held at Marist, honoring the accomplishments of students from Bayonne, Jersey City, and other parts of Hudson County. This year’s graduating class collected a record-breaking total of $4.5 million in scholarships and grants – only the second class in the school’s history to collect more than $3 million.
“Please, please, please, don’t be complacent.” – Robert M. Slaski
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They were followed by top students Clinton Ogega, Erika Balance Marasigan, Amro Elhalim, Jelene Dela Cruz, Chelsea Williams-Diggs, Camille Faye Verano, Joel Alfonso, and Kevin Menendez.
Becoming a hero
For Alice J. Miesnik, assistant vice principal for academics at Marist High School, who served as master of ceremonies for this year’s graduation, it was a tearful event, one filled with mixed emotions.
Miesnik said salutatorian Madeleine Ramos intends to follow in the footsteps of her mother, who is a nurse, and will attend Rutgers University in Newark’s nursing program. She has been accepted into the school’s honors program.
“After getting her degree in nursing, Madeleine hopes to pursue a career in international relations with the ultimate goal of public health,” Miesnik said.
Quoting Eleanor Roosevelt, Ramos said true heroes don’t come about overnight. She said they started as average or even below-average people, then, over time, discovered themselves to become heroes.
She cited current heroes such as TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, saying they struggled to obtain greatness despite significant challenges.
She said when she arrived at Marist, she struggled to speak before a class full of fellow students, but now finds herself speaking before a gym filled with fellow graduates and their families.
“This day is dedicated to every single one of you who shines now or will in the future,” she said. “We all speak, but in different voices. Some are loud; some are soft. Never allow the opinions of others to drown own your inner voice.”
Part of the American Dream
When Miesnik asked the faculty just who was the biggest surprise over the last four years, she said it was Henry Sze.
“Not that Henry grew into a scholar; there was never any doubt about that, but Henry grew into his smile,” she said. “He always smiled, but now his eyes smile, too.”
She said Sze will seek a career in helping others, joining the pre-med program in Rutgers University in the fall, seeking to be either a cardiologist or a pediatrician.
“After four years of planning, writing and rewriting essays, I am now rewarded as valedictorian by having to write another essay,” Sze joked. He thanked the audience and moved away the podium as if his speech had ended with those few words, drawing laughter, cheers, and applause from parents, fellow students, and even from the faculty.
Then buckling down to the chore or a more serious speech, Sze said the original concept of the American Dream meant conquest of human spirit, and he spoke about his own family, who came to the United States from China.
Looking toward his fellow graduates, he each one was an example of this American Dream, going out into the wide world beyond Marist High School.
Sources of light
Robert M. Slaski, the president of Marist, said during the baccalaureate mass on Thursday night that these students were compared to “sources of light,” seeking to make the world a better place. He noted that Sze had called these same graduates “the American Dream.”
“Take this time to shine, take this time to be the American Dream, but please, please, please, don’t be complacent,” he said, noting that even though these students worked hard for four years to get to this place, it was not the end, but merely a new beginning.
Just before giving the last hurrah, class members called brother Stephen Schlitte to the podium.
Unlike in past years, when he usually spoke to the class about the future, he remained quiet for the most part. But he often looked around the room at the faces of students and faculty, taking in images that he – like the graduates – would have to remember for the rest of his life. They were the happy and triumphant moments he has witnessed during his 11 years as principal.
The students, sensing this, greeted him with a diploma of their own, sending him off to be the same light of inspiration for a new school that he had been to them.