The 57th annual commencement ceremony for New Hyde Park Memorial High School last Sunday afternoon was marked by words of advice from the day’s speakers and music from the high school’s select choir.
State Sen. Jack Martins, the principal speaker at the ceremonies in the David S. Mack Athletic Center on the Hofstra University campus, advised the graduates to follow their passions, be gentle with themselves and remember their roots.
“Pray. Forgive yourselves. Do things you enjoy,” Martins said. “Each and every one of you is loved and with all the success I wish for you in your lives, come home. Help make this world a better place.”
Sewanhaka Superintendent of Schools Ralph Ferrie quoted Olympic pentathlon champion Bruce Jenner: “Don’t look outside yourself, look inside. Abolish your fears and look within and you will succeed.”
“Each student here has special talents. Each student will take these talents with you as move outside high school,” Ferrie said. “I hope all of you perseveres and achieves whatever dreams and goals you have set for yourself.”
Martins’ remarks were preceded by a performance of Sting’s “Fields of Gold” by members of the New Hyde Park Memorial Select Choir, including several members of the graduating class.
Later in the ceremonies, preceding the presentation of diplomas, they sang “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” in a moving musical finale.
The New Hyde Park Memorial Band accompanied the entrance of the graduates to the Mack Center with “Pomp and Circumstance” and later performed highlights from the Broadway musical “Wicked”.
“Believe in yourself and be resilient,” class of 2014 president Michael Zornberg told his classmates.
He reflected on how their perceptions of the time spent in high school had progressed from a focus on the length of each class period as underclassmen to the longer view they have now. He said they will ultimately measure time “in the friendships we have made together.”
In a humorous way of emphasizing that point, he asked his classmates to rise and, standing with his back to the podium, snapped a “selfie” of himself with his classmates in the background.
Class valedictorian Steven Lin thanked all his friends “for making high school memorable.”
He told his classmates to adopt a an activist attitude toward the world they would now encounter outside of high school.
“If you don’t like something, change it,” he said.
Lin, who will be studying economics at New York University in the fall, said he didn’t have a precise career direction, but said everyone should follow their passion whatever that would produce.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” Lin said. “I don’t know if you’ll be doing something big or something small.”
Salutatorian Harvinder Bassi told his fellow graduates, “The best advice I can give you is be yourself,” adding that it is important to have “tenacity and grit.”
“It is up to you to spread your wings and stretch for success,” he said. “My fellow graduates, we are not saying goodbye but making a beginning.”
At the conclusion of the Sunday ceremonies, the graduates flipped the tassels on their mortarboards and a sea of blue and white graduation caps filled the air a moment later.
