PHS Class of 2013 Embraces World's Challenges

Family members and friends of the 281 members of the Portsmouth High School Class of 2013 cheered and applauded after they received their diplomas during Friday night's graduation ceremony.

Several student leaders reflected on how the past 12 years they spent in the Portsmouth public schools were often very tumultuous for the nation as well as for some of the fellow students and how they learned to look to the future with hope and optimism.

Class of 2013 Salutatorian Alena Naimark recalled how she and her classmates began first grade at the same time the nation was reeling from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She also those same years that saw the country struggle in the aftermath of the 2007 financial collapse and global warming saw incredible technological advances that ranged from the iPod and iPhone to the Human Genome.

Naimark said growing up and learning during those years that also saw the country elect President Barack Obama in 2008, the country's first African-American, taught her that in an ever-changing world she and her fellow students have a role to play as they enter the next phase of their lives.

"We are no longer people who look into the mirror to see how we look. We look into the mirror to see who we are and where we are going," she said.

She challenged her fellow graduates "to be a participant and not a spectator" as they go forward in life.

Katy Riddell, the Bartlett Prize speaker, said many of her classmates who endured difficult challenges brought on by divorce, coping with a family member battling a life threatening illness, or homelessness inspired her more than her classmates that may have been the most popular or achieved so much in athletics.

Somehow, Riddell said those students who she would not name managed to keep going to class and get as much as they could from their school and being with their classmates. "The inspiration doesn't just come from academic, social or athletic achievements, but life achievements," she said.

Riddell said she drew some important life lessons from being with those classmates who had to cope with so much more than just going to school. "Let us thank all of the people who inspired us to be better and stronger and kinder because those are the qualifications in life that will last a lifetime."

Class of 2013 Valedictorian Julia Comeau pondered the question of what graduation really means. What she concluded is that while the future is full of unknows for her and her classmates as they enter a world that is still suffering from recession and unemployment, they are best equipped to be positive and believe in the future. "This is what graduation means," she said. "Until you arrive at your future, no one can tell you you are wrong."

The Class of 2013 also presented Portsmouth High School Principal Jeffrey Collins with a class gift of a 425-foot zip line to go with the school's Project Adventure course, which Portsmouth School Board Chair Leslie Stevens said she tried out even though she is scared of heights.

As soon as Portsmouth Schools Superintendent Ed McDonough proclaimed that the 281 Portsmouth High Seniors were now graduates, the Class of 2013 members threw their caps into the air, cheered and hugged one another as their parents and friends gave them a thunderous round of applause.