Princeton High School graduates urged to look at life through a lens of hope (with multiple photos)

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Derek DiGregorio was helped by his brother, Aaron, as he walked Wednesday across the platform to collect his diploma from Princeton High School.
The other graduates, dressed in their blue robes for the commencement ceremony, would give a standing ovation to a young man living with a rare and deadly medical condition, Ataxia-Telangiectasia, that affects his nervous and immune systems.
Wednesday was that rite of passage moment for him and the rest of the class of 2017, estimated at 390 students, graduating from high school.
“We are ending such a huge part of our lives,” said senior Madeline Deutsch, who urged her classmates to “crave adventure.”
“Do not settle for anything,” she said.
Superintendent of Schools Stephen C. Cochrane later told them to “look at life through the lens of hope,” even amid challenges at home and abroad.
“The world we are handing you, as you graduate today, is not in great shape,” he said. “American democracy is taking a beating on a daily basis. Acts of bias and bigotry are as high as they have been in fifty years. Incidents of terrorism are on the rise throughout the world. And the fragility of our planet has never been greater.”
His remarks came a little later than originally planned, as Wednesday’s ceremony was delayed an hour by rain and pushed back to 6:30 p.m. The skies cleared, with seniors walking out of the high school onto the front lawn of the school to take their seats.
They graduated from a high performing high school that has been criticized for a climate where students feel overworked and stressed out and where minority students feel marginalized.
“In an era when AP enrollment and standardized test scores are the numbers by which our schools are ranked and we are judged, our perception of achievement becomes one that emphasizes only personal success,” said senior Brian Li in remarks to the graduates. “But the reality is that in measuring our character by what is easy to quantify, we lose sight of what is important: our character, our values.”
He said achievement “is more than just getting a high GPA” or “a list of activities.”
“PHS, to put it simply, is still working toward unification,” said senior Matthew Hawes. “Moving forward, the only way for PHS to get better is to embrace everyone.”
Cochrane said that in their time at the high school, seniors have confronted “serious challenges ranging from academic stress and mental health to anti-Semitism and racial injustice.”
He said they had offered “ideas and solutions” that the district has and would use “to make your high school an even better place for future generations.”
Principal Gary Snyder, in his remarks, read from a poem he had written saying the time had come for “a change in the way we see.”
“To be courageous, as Derek has shown, is something to not do alone,” Snyder said.
Later he alluded to changes that are coming to the high school, including a later start time to the school day and schedule changes.
“We’ll go short and go long,” he said, “we’ll rotate and twist, wellness for all, we are answering the call.”