Mt. Everett Graduates Pay Homage to Hard Work, Big Dreams

LENOX, Mass. — The class of 2011 at Mount Everett Regional School might be small, but they have big dreams and big plans.

The senior class of 53 bid its final farewell to their tough little Sheffield school on Saturday, at a graduation ceremony held at Tanglewood. The ceremony was bittersweet as students expressed gratitude to their teachers, love to their classmates and reverence to those they will miss. Principal Glenn Devoti addressed the class, saying the school's many accomplishments were "all about" the dedication of the little class that could.
  
"There are upsides and downsides to being from a small school," he said. "The upside, of course, is that students and teachers get a more personalized experience and that shouldn't be understated or underappreciated. The downside, supposedly, is that there aren't enough of you to provide a rich, robust educational experience. Well, you've blown that concern right out of the water."

Awards & Scholarships

Indeed, for such a compact class, their achievements run the gamut in terms of academics, athletics, music and community (both local and global) involvement.

"Our music programs have received prestigious recognition in national competitions, we have field trip to everywhere, a theatrical program that puts on four high-caliber show a year, an FFA program, 14 varsity athletic programs, international outreach programs which deal with democracy in the Middle East and programs concerned with feeding the hungry right here in the five towns, " he said. "Never let it be said that a small school can't do big things."

Devoti's praise of the graduates was matched by salutatorian Timothy Reynolds' gratitude toward his classmates and their never-ending passion.

"I've witnessed the growth of my classmates and more importantly the growth of their passion," Reynolds said. "We've risen up to be an impressive group and we have discovered how to fuel our passion, our link to a bright and successful future. Every day that I walk down the halls of the school I see this passion and it gives me a rush of excitement."

Passion and dreams are not the only elements guiding students to a wide-open horizon. According to valedictorian Jeffrey Lowenstein, good old-fashioned hard work is worth its weight in gold.

"I would like to take a moment to give thanks that the rapture didn’t occur a couple weeks ago, because I worked really hard on this speech and the apocalypse would have made it pretty difficult to deliver," he said. "Also, the world ending before high school did would have been a complete catastrophe."

Lowenstein took a quirky approach to his hard-work message, referencing the role of the monkeys in "The Wizard of Oz."

"Anyway, the flying monkeys serve a unique role in the Wizard of Oz which often goes unrecognized. They actually help Dorothy, in that they carry her across a huge dangerous desert and drop her off exactly where she wants to go," he said. "She doesn’t have to do anything herself; someone else gets the monkeys to do all her work for her. OK, but why does it matter what the flying monkeys do? The simple answer is that many people seem convinced that flying monkeys exist; that is to say, that they can get away with putting in no effort and that magically, someone else will do all their work for them and they will succeed. Well guess what? Flying monkeys don’t exist, and if they did they’d probably have fleas. If you want to succeed in high school, in a job, or in anything else, you’re going to have to put in some effort."

While Lowenstein's "no magic monkeys" message was a point well taken, his classmates did seem to conjure up some magic and reverence of their own when paying homage to their beloved music teacher Anson Olds, who was killed in a car accident just last week. Becky Aragi lead her class in singing "Pretty Planet," one of the first songs Olds ever taught the class when they were in elementary school all those years ago. In addition to honoring Olds' memory, students, teachers and faculty also applauded several teachers, including longtime business education teacher Kathleen VanOrman and chorus director Nancy Loder, who are retiring after this year.

As the ceremony came to a close and families of students (whose numbers more than quadrupled the number of graduates onstage) Lowenstein's words still hung in the air with the loud echo of cheers and whistles and "Pomp and Circumstance."

"Try your hardest," he said. "And be grateful for the help and a lucky break every now and again."

Much to our distress, we were not able to get a photographer to the graduation because of scheduling difficulties. If anyone would like to submit photos to go with this story, we would be most grateful.

The graduates:

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