Early Graduates Move On From NHS

The annual early graduation ceremony took place at Newtown High School on February 3rd. The Superintendent of Newtown Schools, Dr. Joseph Erardi, NHS principal Dr. Lorrie Rodrigue, and numerous staff members honored 23 students with words of inspiration and well wishes on this special night.

Dr. Erardi gave opening remarks regarding the race that all humans run. He connected the ideas of running a marathon and finishing high school. Some graduates finished their high school career in three and a half years, and some more, but as Erardi said, “It makes no difference when you finish, as long as you persevere. The key to this evening is that you did it.”

A similar message came from Dr. Rodrigue who expressed her faith in the past and future of the graduates. “Tonight symbolizes academic successes, but more importantly, improvements you made along the way. The education at this high school has prepared you well,” Rodrigue said.

Lilia Hutchinson delivered an inspirational speech about love, life, and finding ourselves to her fellow graduates and their families. She encouraged them to be themselves in wherever life after high school takes them, and continue to make steps forward.

All early graduates have different motivations for not graduating the conventional four years after entering high school with their classmates. Some choose to work, some travel, and some want to take some much needed time off before starting the next chapter of their lives.

Lena Reznikoff has some post-graduation plans already laid out. She plans on sticking with her studies, while also checking an item off of her bucket list. “I always wanted to take some form of a gap year, and I felt if it’s an option to complete high school in a shorter amount of time, why not? Right now I am taking three classes at Naugatuck Valley Community College to get some general education class credits out of the way while working to raise money for my travel fund. I’m going to Iceland in May alone for a month but I hope to visit other countries as well,” Reznikoff said.

Graduating high school in January instead of June is not for everyone. It takes a lot of work to get all graduation standards completed before the end of the year and requires planning ahead. “Many students prefer graduating with the people they have gone to school with their whole lives because graduation does mark the end of an era, and that’s perfectly fine. I transferred into NHS freshman year, which probably made graduating early easier to do mentally. All I will say is that it really wasn’t difficult, so if you want to, you should,” Reznikoff said.

As another January came to a close, 23 more students moved on from Newtown High School. Regardless of what the next move is, congratulations to all on this achievement and milestone!