Gilroy school board president Fred Tovar cited late boxing great Muhammad Ali in his speech to 433 of Christopher High School’s graduating seniors Tuesday night and urged them to take risks.
“When you find success in this world, pay it forward,” Tovar said. “Give an opportunity to someone just as someone has given to you. As the late, great Muhammad Ali once said, ‘He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.’”
Friends and family crowded into the main seating area, eager to get a good view of the proceedings. The graduates entered the quad and filled the seats closest to the stage. The sea of teal and white graduation gowns was peppered with personally decorated caps, some adorned with jewelry and glitter, others with marker and paint.
Air horns sounded through the diploma awards, despite principal Paul Winslow announcing they weren’t permitted. Winslow welcomed the audience to the graduation ceremony in both English and Spanish. The rest of the ceremony was English-only.
He recognized the other gown-wearing administrative officials onstage, including Gilroy Unified School District superintendent Deborah Flores, Tovar and GUSD board vice president Patricia Midtgaard.
Don and Karen Christopher, the school’s namesakes, were also in attendance. “Our students are blessed on a daily basis due to their generosity and love for the students at Christopher High School,” Winslow said.
Fliers throughout the quad indicated where graduates are headed: the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, Chapman University, Notre Dame, the Institute of Business Technology, Monterey Peninsula College, Gavilan College and more.
“While graduation is always bittersweet for an educator and a parent, I’m always reminded by the wise words of the great American poet Robert Frost,” Winslow said. “Frost told us that he could sum up everything he had learned about life in three words, ‘Life Goes On.’”
It’s unfortunate that some people misinterpret Frost’s poetry as pessimistic, because those three words are infused with the spirit of freedom, independence, and a future, he said.
“Your experiences at Christopher High School have forever changed the course of your lives,” Winslow continued. “And we as a staff will go on, forever changed by having experienced life with you. Thank you, the Class of 2016, for giving us the brief chance to know you, and the opportunity to experience the beginning of a future where your dreams become reality. A future where you will change the world forever.”
Winslow then introduced the class salutatorian, Gianfranco Filice. The salutatorian is the second highest ranking student in a graduating class, after the valedictorian.
Filice’s speech focused on addressing false guarantees in life after high school, including the loss of a peer or loved one.
“When my mom was diagnosed with an aggressive form of gastric cancer, it changed my life in more ways than I could ever explain,” Filice said. “The more I became aware of the world around me, the more I saw the strength and resiliency from my mother within each one of us.”
He talked about seeing peers overcome hardships in their lives and how it lifted him up.
“Your personal stories have inspired me to believe that every one of us is capable of greatness, regardless of the cards we’re dealt,” he said.
Valedictorian Kaitlyn Lombardo focused her address on a lesson she learned about fear as a child. Fear washed over her during her first ballet recital, but her father inspired her to not give up.
“My dad, who was always able to read my emotions, leaned down to look me square in the face as I began to explain to him that I didn’t want to do this anymore and that I want to go home,” Lombardo said. “He said, ‘Katie, you feel that dull ache right there?’ as he touched my stomach. ‘That’s fear. It’s not going to go away. You can let it consume you, or you can take control of it. You need to dance with your fear.’”
Lombardo urged her classmates to embrace fear, because it’s times like that ballet recital that have resulted in her proudest accomplishments.
“Know that when you feel fear you’re doing something right,” she said.
Principal Winslow introduced Mark Rose, an English teacher at CHS, who was selected by the senior class as their keynote speaker.
“This is a class that showed up to events in greater numbers than I’ve ever seen,” Rose said. Christopher High School Athletes of the Year Christa Arroyo and Matt Adamkiewicz came onstage to honor school tradition and ring the large, ceremonial bell at the front of the stage. Winslow said that students ring the bell to celebrate the year’s accomplishments.
Graduates lined up to walk across the stage, shake administrative hands, and accept their diplomas. A burst of cheering erupted somewhere among the audience each time a name was called.
Principal Winslow and Superintendent Flores presented the graduating class to the audience of family and friends after the final diploma was handed out. The graduates erupted. Caps flung skyward with no concern about their landing.
And just like that, another graduating class ventured out into the world.
