Nashoba Tech Celebrates Chelmsford, Westford Graduates

WESTFORD, MA— Like every other senior in high school this year, those at Nashoba Valley Technical High School Class of 2021 had to endure more than their fair share of setbacks.

So it should be no surprise that every one of the speakers at the June 5 graduation ceremony used that P word: pandemic. Oddly enough, however, every speaker also managed to pass on a decidedly upbeat message.

The common denominator was that no one was going to let the pandemic define the Class of 2001. It happened, the school community — students, teachers, administrators — handled it to near perfection, and now it’s on to the next thing.

For the 169 graduates, the next thing is the rest of their lives.

Valedictorian Kyle Desjardins of Townsend said he and his classmates — as well as all students at technical schools — were better prepared for what happened near the end of the 2019-2020 school year, when they were juniors, because they have endured hardship from the beginning.

“After all, our entire high-school journey started with one giant leap into a school where we didn’t know anyone, and it ended during a return from a worldwide pandemic,” he said.

Desjardins said that when he and his fellow eighth-graders at Hawthorne Brook Middle School were selecting their classes for freshman year at North Middlesex Regional High School, his sheet of paper was blank. When he told his teacher he had decided to go to Nashoba Tech to study Engineering Technology, his teacher said, “Kyle, you won’t be able to go to college if you go there.”

He went on to tell the crowd that, through Nashoba Tech’s Dual Enrollment program, he attended Middlesex Community College full time his senior year and is one year into earning a bachelor’s degree.

“I guess I showed her,” he said of his eighth-grade teacher.

And not only that. He went on to praise five of his fellow graduates who attended MCC the last two years and graduated earlier this spring with an associate’s degree.

One of those double graduates — Eryn Rasmus of Littleton (the other four are Connor Magoon of Townsend, Jacob Oskirko of Pepperell, Lindsey Parise of Townsend and Gabriel Sarrategui of Chelmsford) — also spoke at commencement.

Rasmus said that while “our junior and senior years were not ideal,” they will be “even more memorable” for her and her classmates for what they managed to survive.

And class president Seth Rigby of Chelmsford, a cross-country star for Nashoba Tech who couldn’t stop running at graduation — to and from the podium to speak, to and from the stage to receive his diploma — had perhaps the most uplifting speech.

He first thanked teachers at Nashoba Tech for handling the changes brought on by the pandemic.

He said that while he never saw himself running for class president when he first entered Nashoba Tech, he “developed the confidence and developed the ability to lead people by ... well, I’m not really sure what I lead people by, but I did lead them.”

Rigby said he and his classmates will encounter many opportunities in life.

“So why not explore them? Maybe one small decision can make the rest of your life 10 times better,” he said.

Chelmsford graduates: Corey Barber, Aaliyah Barry, David Bianchi, Crista Bilodeau, Jack Bortone, Andrew Boyle, Michael Carpentier, Kyle Cleary, Cameron Colleton, William Connor, Danny Coughlin, Joseph DeBenedictis, Benjamin DeSilva, Michael Farah, Kayleigh Ferreira, Cody Flint, Megan Foley, Patrick Ford, Catelynn Forrest, John Fraser, Ivy Frey, Nicholas Giannino, Taigen Golen, Adam Graham, Kya Iacono, James King, Zachary Langone, Merlyn Leger, Joseph Lougbo, Rebecca Loureiro, Janellies Medina, Zena Merullo, Jaryd Molinari, Alyssa Morrill, Vincent Nardone, Jonnathan Ngaruiya, Lindsey Parise, Dylan Pueschel, Eryn Rasmus, Jaycub Reed Jacob Reese, Hannah Riley, Nathan Ros, Gavin Saab, Isabella Sanabria, Gabriel Sarrategui, Georgia Sarrategui, Christopher Schenck, Connor Stenquist, Christopher Suslowicz, Anna Tang, Jacob Walker, Sarah Wilson

Westford graduates: Ryan Battle, Jonathan Burke, Cameron Cook, Anthony DiPilato, Dawidh Feltz, Eliza Franklin, Samantha Gunning, Arshjot Kaur, Emmalee Lamy, Kelsey Landers, Sabrina McLaughlin, Ashley Parsons, Tyler Pelley, Adam Pichel, Kaden Sheehy, Samantha Valcourt.

—Submitted and written by Dan Phelps