State Rep. Smitty Pignatelli was awarded an honorary Mount Everett diploma on Saturday from Principal Jesse Carpenter. See more photos here. 

LENOX, Mass. — Mount Everett Regional School graduates were touted as the "little engines that could" in a world riddled with conflict.

Thirty students crossed the Tanglewood stage Saturday morning under sunny skies. School Committee Chair Bonnie Silvers explained that when writing her address to the class, she turned to the American folktale "The Little Engine That Could."

"The Mount Everett class of 2024, in my opinion, is so much like that engine. It's small but, boy, is it mighty. These students had the dubious honor of being Mount Everett eighth-graders when the pandemic began and they had to deal with every iteration of national and local edicts directing their education, closed schools, remote learning, hybrid education, combining Zoom and in-person learning, almost weekly changes in health regulations to finally returning to classes in person but with mass distancing, sanitation rules, vaccinations, and worries about additional outbreaks," she said.

"Couple all of this with the fact they've lived through a three-year merger initiative that brought a great deal of uncertainty into many of our communities and as we know, when it affects our communities, it impacts the lives of our students."

She reported never seeing so many students graduating with certificates of biliteracy, one with biliteracy with distinction. The 2024 class earned the most scholarship funds in the last seven years to colleges across the county and has completed more than 230 college credits, she said, "this type of initiative is special."

"They found their voice despite or maybe because of what was happening in the areas of adversity, pandemic, conflict, et cetera," she said.

State Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli also pointed to the tumultuous world that the graduates have grown up in.

"Sadly, and I say it, sadly, they have never lived in a world where we have not been at war and the unrest that is experienced here today all over the world and right here at home, the political discourse that we have, the COVID experiences that you guys have experienced and survived and prospered, the 230 college degree credits, that is an amazing accomplishment," he said.