The teal-and-white gowned class of 2013 threw their caps into the cool night air Friday with a marked pride, knowing they will forever stand distinct from the thousands of graduates their alma mater will churn out in years to come.
“It’s just surreal to me,” said graduate Jenni Sigle, beaming after the ceremony that marked the first four-year graduating class of Christopher High School.
“It was exciting to be the people who made the traditions and set the pace for the future” she said. “We’ll always be the first four-year class, no matter what.”
The 300-plus group of glowing graduates were cheered on by 4,000 parents, grandparents, friends and loved ones who gathered in the stately CHS quad as the sun set behind the science building.
“As the first graduating class to have completed four years at Christopher High, we all have been witness to, and in many cases endured, the long days, months and even years of construction that went into these majestic buildings that surround us,” said Valedictorian Jeffrey Kong in his address to the class. “Yet these buildings, resting upon their solid, immovable foundations, have supported us throughout our four years of high school education.”
It is this foundation, Kong continued, that prepared he and his classmates to launch themselves into the world and succeed. Soon, the graduates will disperse to colleges and trade schools around the country, including Harvard University, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Fresno State University, Gavilan College and more. One graduate, Brice Rush, said he plans to become a professional fishing tour guide.
Salutatorian Jerry Kuang talked about how the Class of 2013 shaped the “expectations for excellence” from scratch.
The sparkling multi-millioin dollar campus opened in 2009 and has continued to expand, most notably the $3.7 million aquatic facility that opened two years ago.
“We didn’t have a pool, we didn’t have a football field, we didn’t have a theater, we didn’t have a track, we didn’t have tennis courts. I remember in our first years, our tennis team lost every match of the season. This year, our tennis team was one win away from first in league,” Kuang said to his cheering classmates. “All of the classes after you now will try to follow what you did. You set the expectations that they will try to meet, the records they will want to pass, the footsteps that they will want to follow.”
The graduates, dazzled by the imminent promise of their beckoning, untainted futures, whispered amongst themselves during the ceremony, with glittery decorated caps boasting the sports they played or the colleges they were accepted to, bobbing around. Anticipation built to the moment where hundreds of gold streamers burst into the air after Superintendent Debbie Flores officially presented the Class of 2013.
After the ceremony, graduates congregated with each other and their families, hugging, shouting, snapping photos and recapping their favorite moments from the evening.
Despite their best efforts, several students said they cried through English teacher Paul Winslow’s keynote speech. In it, Winslow admonished the graduates to live for a purpose – whatever that purpose may be.
Winslow told a story of how – while on a construction job as a teenager – he met man who took pride in the thankless, strenuous work of dry walling and demanded perfection.
The young Winslow couldn’t understand why, until he saw a 3-year-old girl in a pink tutu run up to the man, happily squealing for her father.
Winslow said the man looked at him and said, “I do all of this for her.”
“You don’t have to be a doctor, lawyer or engineer to change to the world,” Winslow said in closing. “But go out into this world and be extraordinary.”
For others, it was that moment of throwing their cap into the air that stuck with them.
“I’m never going to forget that moment. It’s pressed on my memory,” said graduate Matthew Ayala.
Ayala, who plans to attend Gavilan College in the fall, remembered those early days at CHS, when the buildings were roped off as construction wrapped up.
“We’d have to squeeze close together to get through a hallway between classes, and it only made us closer in the end,” he said.
Ayala’s mother and extended family hovered around him, taking photos and gushing over how proud they are of him for passing this milestone. Christopher Ranch owners Don and Karen Christopher, the benefactors who donated 10 acres of land and more than $700,000 to jump-start the construction budget for CHS, sat among Principal John Perales and the Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education on the stage decorated with pillars of stacked Christopher Ranch garlic crates.
“Make no mistake, Gilroy and our school are better off because of their generosity,” Perales said.
Sniffles could be heard from the audience as CHS’s chamber choir performed “For Good,” a sentimental song about goodbyes from the musical “Wicked,” led by retiring choir teacher Phil Robb. The 61-year-old music teacher has taught in GUSD for 30 years, but will still visit CHS once a week next year to mentor the new music instructor.
Graduate Katie Wheat described her class as a close bunch who are proud of being the first freshman class at CHS.
“We became family. All of us. And now we’re celebrating together after four years,” Wheat said. “The first four years ever.”
