Students, parents and faculty recall the times they have shared
By: Emily Craighead
TRENTON West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South’s class of 2005 numbered 339 graduates who each spent more than 700 days within South’s wall-less classrooms and emerged lifelong learners ready to tackle the real world or in other cases college.
But numbers like these mean little to class treasurer Liron Noimon.
"How valuable a tool is measurement?" she asked the classmates seated before her at the Sovereign Bank Arena on Tuesday. "Can you really measure how far we’ve come in four years?"
Board of Education Vice President Patricia Bocarsly mused over some of the changes the class of 2005 has seen.
"The very nature of research has also changed," she said. "These students are much more likely to start their research by ‘Googling’ than at the library.
"The world is likely to change as much in the next 13 years of your lives as it has in the last 13," she added.
For valedictorian Lauren Yokomizo, the world hasn’t changed all that much in four years, a thought she takes comfort in.
"The only thing that has changed about lying on my back and looking at the stars is I’ll do it at 3 a.m. instead of 10 p.m.," she said. "We remain secure in the knowledge that, at the heart of all things, nothing has changed."
South’s graduates learned a few other lessons during their four years at the high school, lessons that often posed challenges or raised questions rather than providing solutions.
The real lesson was that learning isn’t about answers, according to class speaker Jonathan Kugel.
"It’s not enough to have the answers," he said. "We want the route to the answers."
Jonathan said South helped him find that route.
"Everyone I came in contact with gave me pressures and responsibilities," he said. "South gave me the joy and satisfaction of applying what I learned to an end result."
Assistant Superintendent Jon Cosse, who began his career in West Windsor-Plainsboro when the class of 2005 was in first grade, exits the district with this class, as well.
"West Windsor-Plainsboro South will always have a special place in my heart," Dr. Cosse said.
When this year’s graduates first entered South’s doors on Sept. 7, 2001, many of them were overwhelmed.
"I thought to myself, this is nothing like Grover (Middle School) or any school I ever went to," class secretary William Jerome said. "How would I ever fit in?"
Four years later, wearing green-and-gold graduation gowns, those same students shared some mixed emotions about leaving behind high school.
"I’m going to miss walking in every morning through those doors and the people you see every day," said Roney Yu, who will attend culinary school in the fall.
On graduation day, student Rohan Udeshi had no regrets.
"It’s been a fun four years, but I’m happy to get out of here," he said.
Andrew Jang, who is headed to Lehigh University in the fall, also said he is ready for a change.
"I’m happy just to get it over with," he said.
Parents shared the same mixture of pride, relief and sadness as the graduates.
"It’s the first time we have a son graduate from an American high school, so it’s very exciting," said John Xu, who watched his son, Allen, walk onto the stage to accept his diploma.
Kris Grabell, a nurse at High School South, stood on stage and handed her daughter, Erica, her diploma.
"It was sort of bittersweet, because this was my last child," Ms. Grabell said. "I got to see her every day because she was a student" at South.
Many students, and perhaps even those who expressed nothing but relief Tuesday night, will hold onto many happy memories of high school, class president Elizabeth Anne Macaluso said.
"No matter how hard you try, you will never forget the in- tense pride you felt when they called your name to get your diploma," she said in her farewell address.