Graduation Day for 596 St. Anthony's Students

Years of hard work culminated in celebration for 596 seniors Saturday, as they received degrees acknowledging their graduation from high school.

The ceremony, which took place in the school's new student center, was preceded by a traditional procession along Wolf Hill Road, and ended with the graduates throwing their caps in the air at the center of the school's football field. It was the culmination of four days of , which included a senior barbeque and a graduation Mass.

The ceremony featured speeches from valedictorian Kathryn Adams and saluditorian Ian Storck as well as from principal Bro. Gary Cregan and Most Rev. William Murphy, the head of the Diocese in Rockville Centre. Numerous awards from the school's different departments were handed out to members of the graduating class as well.

Cregan's speech focused on the presence of the Holy Spirit in the graduating class and singled out the achievements of seven members of the graduating class, including Janina Vargas, who is currently battling cancer. His speech reflected his tremendous pride in the 2011 class.

"For four years, we have watched you grow, and are so proud of your accomplishments," he said. "Your intellectual pursuits, numerous athletic awards and acts of Christian service are done for the love of God. How selfless."

Adams, who received the school’s highest academic honor (the Brother Celestine Memorial Plaque), spoke of a letter she received two weeks earlier from her 13-year-old self. In reading it, she realized that she and her classmates faced many of the same fears then as they do now.

“Though many of us feel anxious about leaving, remember that we once felt the same way about coming to St. Anthony’s,” she said. “We again find ourselves at a point where, even though there is a part of us that does not want to graduate, we know that we are ready for the next stage of our lives.

Storck thanked his family, his teachers and his fellow classmates and used personal experience to stress the importance of happiness to his classmates.

"Up until this year, I admit that I was not always happy," he said. "I forced myself into a negative attitude and immersed myself deeper into misery. These times were short-lived, but they did not need to happen at all because there is plenty to be happy about. Never be disgruntled or unhappy simply for the sake of being so."           

Murphy provided the ceremony’s closing remarks and prayer, and noted that the students will be forever linked to the time they spent at St. Anthony’s.

“We belong to many things in our lives,” he said. “We belong first of all to our families, to our faith and to our friends. And today, in a way that is indelibly locked to your identity as the class of 2011, you belong to St. Anthony’s High School, and St. Anthony’s High School belongs to each and every one of you. Cherish those important bonds to which you now belong.”