July 2010

Class of 2010 Commencement Speakers Say
Post-Graduate Life is a Series of Packages

By Stephen E. Lipken

“’Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get,’” stated retiring Mamaroneck Union Free School District Superintendent (MUSFD) Dr. Paul Fried, quoting from the motion picture Forrest Gump in his speech before 315 Mamaroneck High School (MHS) Class of 2010 students at Commencement Exercises held on Wednesday, June 23, 2010.

The theme of life being a package of the graduate either presenting him/her self to the world or viewing life after graduation like a “surprise package” ran like a thread through all of the graduation speeches.
“Who you want to be,” Fried asked. Which version of ‘you’ do you want to present to the world? Will you be a leader, a follower, or mimic? The only voice you need to listen to is yourself. As Forrest Gump said, ‘Put the past behind you before you move on.”

Retiring Principal Dr. Mark Orfinger spoke about the “lump in my throat” that he gets each graduation and how “the student body worked its way into my soul.

“The prestigious poet Sandra Maria Estaves talks about the ‘surprise package’ that life gives you. ‘You are told it is yours. You don’t know what is in it. When the package is opened you wonder whether the contents are really yours.’

“Then I thought about the diversity, spirit, Performing Arts Curriculum Exchange (PACE) program, architecture, video classes, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Multi-Cultural Club and Model Congress—all available to our students.

“We are an open campus...When you treat pupils as adults you get students that are accepting, tolerant and broad-minded. Fill your package up with what you want. Take that package and start rebuilding it in college.”

Valedictorian Catherine Gerkis referred to Norton Juster’s book The Phantom Tollbooth, in which the main character Milo travels to Digitopolis, a city of numbers and Dictionopolis whose contents are words. “I liked Digitopolis because numbers are unequivocal solutions, unlike nuances of literature. Then I found out that modern math can have variable solutions, abstract and debatable, which cemented my understanding of uncertainties.”

Mamaroneck Teachers Association (MTA) President Ann Borsellino presented the Boothby Award, named after Arthur Boothby, Superintendent from 1917 to 1941 to Karen Bolivar, who came from Columbia in 2006, initially knowing little English.

Class President Sam Silverman then awarded the Class Gift, a plaque listing all Boothby recipients.

 

 

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