Charter School Celebrates Graduates

Individual accomplishments and collective pride were on display Sunday afternoon as the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School celebrated the graduation of seven of its students.

Under a grand white tent laced with tie-dyed sheets, family, friends, teachers and schoolmates traded laughter and smiles as Hannah Vanderlaske, Mattia Phaneuf, Brian Luce, Erica Taylor, Jessica Dupon, Sasha Iammarino and Domonique Aaron received their diplomas.

Unlike most public school graduates, there was no valedictorian speech; no singling out of a select few. Instead, each student was lavished with praise and given the opportunity to speak. Younger students presented individual gifts to the graduates, tailored to their areas of interest and future paths. Teachers bestowed upon them hand-selected books and personalized awards.

The graduates returned the favor, lavishing praise on the school’s independent and “interdependent” ethos—as director Robert Moore temed it—which encourages students at the small school to design their own path.

Stepping up to the podium, senior Dupon thanked her individual teachers and “all who believe in the mission of this school.”

“The community here is so intimate, walking through the front door often feels like coming home,” she said. 

“I can’t even begin to tell you how lucky I feel to have been able to work with such amazing teachers, people who every day give us their all,” said Vanderlaske. “There has never once been a day in my entire career here as a student where I have felt unloved or underappreciated by any one of these teachers.”

“In this school, I have truly learned what a community is,” Vanderlaske said.

That feeling of community, of belonging to a school instead of merely attending it, was echoed by math teacher Deborah Cutrer, who delivered the commencement address.

Having extolled the benefits of following through on their passions, she ended with a quake in her voice. “Never forget—never forget—how much you are loved by your Charter School community,” Cutrer said.

In addition to their personalized gifts, each student was awarded $500 from the nonprofit Options in Education, to be put toward further education, and a Certificate of Congressional Recognition from Congressman William Keating. Vanderlaske was awarded a $3,000 Lumina-Darrow Scholarship.