Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Palisades Charter High School graduated 543 seniors during a 90-minute ceremony at the Stadium by the Sea last Thursday evening. More than 3,000 people sat in the bleachers and lined the fences as the school’s orchestra and concert band, under the direction of Josh Elson and Arwen Hernandez, played the traditional ‘Pomp and Circumstance.’ Noisemakers, blast horns, balloons and large signs were prohibited this year so that everybody could hear the name of each student being called and see them them receive their diplomas. ‘This was about respect and courtesy for the graduates, their friends and family,’ said Richard Thomas, PaliHi’s director of instruction. Student Body President Ramin Badiyan led the Pledge of Allegiance, which was followed by the National Anthem, sung by senior Elena Loper. The appreciative response for Loper when she hit high B flat was deafening. ‘She has an amazing voice,’ choir director Elson said after the ceremony. Senior class president Bianca Bernardi welcomed everyone in English, followed by the the same welcome in Armenian. Students welcomed the crowd in 16 other languages, including Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Bengali, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Nigerian. ’We looked at the home languages of our students,’ Thomas said, ‘and then asked students if they wanted to try out to speak at graduation.’ This multi-lingual welcome was a way of involving the entire school community, he added, and represents the diversity of the school. This year, also after auditions, three student speakers gave short speeches, and Chelsea Cobbs wrote a poem titled ‘Dear Palisades’ that was selected for the inside the front cover of the program. Kareasia Dunbar-Jones, a cheerleader and traveling student who will attend the University of Arizona, spoke about how the graduation marked personal successes for students the past four years. These successes included waking up at 5 a.m. to get to school, taking extra night classes or summer school, and on a lighter note, still having their original cell phones from freshman year. She thanked the faculty and administration for ‘letting us express who we are, while molding us to successfully meet our challenges.’ ’Self is not something one finds, but that one creates,’ said Sparkle Hodge, who was prom queen and participated in choir. ‘The moments we have spent here have created who we are today.’ Hodge, who will attend Agnes Scott College, a liberal arts women’s college in Decatur, Georgia, urged her classmates to ‘continue to thrive as you create the new you.’ Julian Schwartzman, who was active in leadership and drama, took a more humorous tact, breaking his tie with PaliHi (a school founded in 1961), much like one might break up with a girlfriend. ‘It’s time to start seeing other schools,’ said Schwartzman, who is headed to Cal State Northridge. ‘Baby, baby, don’t give me that poker face, you’re almost 50! I have to go to college because I’m not going to stay with you forever.’ For a musical interlude, Elson arranged a medley of ‘Songs for Moving On’ that featured solos by senior choir members Mia Canter, Tasha Solomita, Wyn Delano, Angelyn Suh and Sparkle Hodge. The senior instrumentalists were Andrew Dennett, Pilar Garcia-Brown, Brooke Greenberg, Chauncey Hicks, Jackie Rosen and Heeju Yang. Valedictorian Alexandra Khitun, who had a 4.413 GPA after completing 13 advanced placement (AP) classes and will attend Dartmouth, addressed her peers with a quote from an American-born essayist Logan Smith. ‘There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.’ She said that ever since her graduation from Paul Revere, she had hoped she would be valedictorian, but once she arrived at this point she had writer’s block, making it hard to enjoy the moment. ’Speeches always talk about how this day is not the end but a new beginning and how it’s all about the journey and not the destination,’ said Khitun, a Playa Del Rey resident.”But to me this day is nothing if not a destination and I hope that we will all have the wisdom to thoroughly enjoy it.’ Salutatorian was Pacific Palisades resident Brooke Greenberg, who will attend UC Berkeley and had a 4.3 GPA, having also taken 13 AP classes. Principal Marcia Haskin told the students that two years ago when she was serving as an interim principal, she never imagined that she would be principal for their graduation. ’You’ve made me proud that you took advantage of the excellent education offered here,’ Haskin said quoting novelist John Grisham. ‘Each of you is an original. Each of you has a distinctive voice. When you find it, your story will be told. Your voice will be heard.’ PaliHi graduates will attend colleges ranging from UCLA, Washington, Michigan and Wisconsin to Brown, Yale, Vassar and Wellesley, and abroad to Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Aberystwyth University in Wales.
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