PaliHi Graduates a Record 676

A record 676 seniors received their diplomas at Palisades Charter High School Monday evening in the Stadium-by-the-Sea.
In attendance was Rose Gilbert, the former English teacher and school benefactor, who has never missed a graduation in the school’s 51-year history and can remember the first graduation, held in the boys’ gym.
“Pali is the toughest school, and no one can match us academically. Our kids are going to high-caliber colleges,” Gilbert told the Palisadian-Post after the ceremony.
Student body president Hailey Biscow, who will attend Colgate University, led the Pledge of Allegiance and Jesse Rheingold (headed for Northern Arizona University) presented a Jimi Hendrix-style rendering of the National Anthem on his electric guitar.
Senior class president Eunice Lee (Tulane) welcomed the crowd in the packed football stadium, telling them, “Pali is our home.” She is one of three seniors to receive full-ride Posse scholarships, joining Luis Cardenas (Dickinson) and Jonathon Tewodros, who will attend Bucknell.
In lieu of outside speakers, seniors audition for the opportunity to speak at commencement. Anastasi Rivera-Hackley, Monica Gilsanz and Patricia Vasquez were selected as well as Ariel Kasheri and Devin Maghen.
Kasheri and Maghen were injured in a multi-car crash in the Sepulveda Pass that almost cost them their lives in January 2012. They were hospitalized in critical condition and missed almost a year of school. As they continue therapy, they are back at the school working towards graduation.
“Before the accident I took my life for granted,” Kasheri said. “After the accident I tell myself to work hard each and every day and appreciate the gift of life.”
“I survived a horrific car accident,” Maghen said. “I learned that life can take unexpected turns. One must focus on the journey of life because there is no certainty on the destination.”
Rivera-Hackley, who will attend Loyola Marymount, praised the PaliHi teachers for their inspiration and influence. “We have the potential to be great in whatever we choose. Pali has instilled us with a strong work ethic.”
Gilsanz (American University) said, “We share a school community that has engaged us and challenged us to make our own vision more clear. As one of my teachers once said, ‘My first job is to help my students become better people. My second job is to teach them how to become better students. And my third job is to teach them Spanish.’ Every dedicated Pali teacher lives a version of this philosophy.”
Patricia Vasquez, who wants to be a neuro scientist and will continue her journey at Santa Monica College, quoted Martin Luther King: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
She told her classmates that their next step would be as adults. “We feel like know ‘everything’ and do not always listen to adults—now,” but when they transition into that stage in life, they will be called upon to overcome that shortcoming.
The traditional multi-lingual welcome, as a tribute to the diversity of the immigrant student body, was given in 12 languages that included Korean, Japanese, Bengali and Turkish.
The class of 2013 had two salutatorians: Joshua Ravicz and Victor Li, who had identical GPAs of 4.4 and both took 10 AP classes. Ravicz will attend UCLA and Li will attend Brown University.
Valedictorian Brent Frangipane, who had a 4.45 grade point average with 11 APs and straight As, urged his fellow students to look beyond fulfilling the American dream of going into the world and getting rich.
“Don’t waste your life dreaming for fulfillment through individual wealth and material things. Happiness is not so cheap to be owned. Happiness is so precious precisely because it is often difficult to find, to capture, to nurture.”
Frangipane, who is headed for Berkeley, said he and his classmates should work towards their passion but also think about what they can do better for the world and for community. Then, “we’ll know true happiness.”
PaliHi principal and executive director Dr. Pamela Magee, completing her second year, told the seniors that she was proud of them and that Monday’s ceremony was a celebration of their accomplishments.
Choir director Josh Elson wrote “Graduation Medley 2013,” and seniors had solos during the following songs: “Time of My Life”—Mary McGowan, Sue Chin, Jalila and Janeesha Jones; “You Gotta Be”—Anastasia Rivera-Hackley; “Seasons” –-Sarah Freedland and Daisy Moreira; “Home”—Brandon Papo;
“In My Life”—Arielle Sitrick and Jackie Wallach; “Breakaway”—Elissa Tittle and Cindy Hernandez; and “Good Riddance”—Leor Tehrani and Bailey Higgins;
“Unwritten”—Cherokee Suggs; and “Beat-Boxer”—Jair Mendez.
“You have lived up to my expectations,” Magee said. “As you leave, take the PaliHi traditions with you. You may now move your tassel from the right to left.”
Cheers broke out from the seniors and a sea of blue caps flew towards the sky.
Helene Kunkel, director of the college center, said that about 52 percent of the graduating class will attend four-year colleges in 31 states and England, Scotland, Canada and Mexico. Students have chosen two-dozen new schools, including Drexel, Louisville, Loyola Chicago, St. John’s, Alabama State, Concordia, Washington and Lee, and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
Students will also enroll at every UC campus, as well as Duke, Penn, West Point, Northwestern, Bucknell, Johns Hopkins, Vassar, Amherst, Dartmouth, Stanford, University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, Bowdoin and Oberlin. Four students will go directly into the military.
About 40 percent of the students will start at a community college, with the intent to transfer to a UC.
Twins Daniel and Ashley Hannani, who will go to Santa Monica College (turning down other college acceptances), explained that their older sister Melody (class of 2011) is attending UC Santa Cruz, so from a family perspective, it makes sense financially to go local for two years.