Hills West Sends Out Class of 2011

Hills West salutatorian got the crowd to do the wave.

Valedictorian Dianna Hu moved many to tears. 

And the entire Class of 2011 moved their tassels across their caps and walked across the stage as proud high school graduates Sunday afternoon.

"The Hills West Class of 2011 has truly grown to become an unbelievable group of talented and intelligent young adults," senior class president Kate Spiesman said of the 344 graduates during the school's 33rd commencement ceremony held in the auditorium of .

Spiesman, as did many of the speakers on the day, recognized retiring principal Debra Intorcia.

"We began this trip together and are finishing it together," Spiesman said of Intorcia. "We thank you and appreciate all you’ve done for us."

Dartmouth-bound Lisann was a bit late turning in a draft of his graduation day speech, joking that he took a nap after the deadline passed and googled "good graduation speeches" in search for inspiration. 

But on Sunday afternoon, he said he had found his inspiration by searching within himself and he urged his classmates to do the same as they embark on the next chapter of their lives.

"Whether you plan to pursue a career in medicine, business or the arts," Lisann said, "in the words of Gene Roddenberry, writer of Star Trek, 'We must boldly go where no man has gone before.'

"Each person here has the power to shape your own future positively, but this can only be accomplished if you take the challenge to discover yourself and utilize your own unique qualities," Lisann added.

Valedictorian , headed to Harvard in the fall and with every academic accolade under the sun attached to her name, wasn't speaking at her first graduation. 

Hu also spoke at her elementary school graduation seven years ago, but this time around, she said the crowd was a bit bigger, and the students, too.  It was Hu's message, though, of how the Hills West community made her feel right at home that had many in the crowd and on the stage wiping away tears.

"Over the years we’ve formed a sense of cohesion here at West that you really just can’t find anywhere else," said Hu, adding that she didn't have many friends when she moved to the Half Hollow Hills district in second grade.

Hu was born with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and is largely confined to a wheelchair.

"Once I got here," Hu said of High School West, "even from the very first day of class, everyone, it did not matter if I had a physical diabaility, it did not matter if I ran over everybody’s feet, all that did matter was that you had an open mind and even more, open hearts."

Hu told her classmates to confront the real world armed with all of the knowledge packed into their brains over the past 12 years. 

"Above all, the Class of 2011, you have taught me a concept that has been epitomized by leaders in our society from President Obama to Bob the Builder and beyond," Hu concluded. "You have taught me the idea that yes we can, yes we can influence the real world out there and yes we can inspire each other.  

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