HHS grads: privileged, challenged

By: Matt Chiappardi
   TRENTON — "We are the most privileged generation ever," said Hightstown High School class valedictorian Pramod Thammaiah. "Twenty years ago, the Internet, cell phones, and PCs were simply an idea."
   But from Pramod’s perspective, his class will face "the greatest crossroads in history."
   That was the message June 21 at Sovereign Bank Arena from Pramod and others as he and 325 of his fellow Class of 2007 graduates bid farewell to their four years of high school and prepared to step into a larger and changing world.
   Pramod and school board Vice-President Bob Laverty highlighted the challenges of globalization, nuclear proliferation, global warming, and the war in Iraq that each graduating senior will have to face.
   "The gulf between rich and poor nations is growing, rouge states are trying to acquire nuclear weapons, we see a genocide in Darfur, and Russia is sliding back to totalitarianism," Pramod said.
   However, Pramod said he is not frightened by the world he and his classmates will be inheriting.
   "We are no longer children," he added, "We have a responsibility to face these challenges."
   When time came for the presentation of diplomas, Mr. Laverty lik- ened the path in front of the Class of 2007 to his graduating class 33 years ago.
   "Our nation is splintered, we have a deeply unpopular war fought on questionable intelligence," said Mr. Laverty, who has organized a number of anti-war protests in Hightstown. "There is a secretive government in Washington with its advisers in the White House sentenced to prison."
   To find hope, Mr. Laverty called upon the class to consider public service and to take notes from people who inspired him in his youth, such as John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.
   "Find Darfur, Anbar, Gaza and the Antarctic ice shelf on the map," he said, "and then map out the connection to the role you play."
   There will be many candidates to answer Mr. Laverty’s call. Six students plan to go on to military service after graduation. Another 238 plan to seek higher education, including Pramod who will be a freshman at Harvard University this fall.
   And, according to Principal Alix Arvizu, more than $643,000 in academic awards were given to the class including three Robert C. Byrd scholarships and 15 Edward J. Bloustein awards.
   As the class looked forward to a world in flux, tradition still floated over the ceremony. The class still made its traditional procession to Sir Edward Elgar’s "Pomp and Circumstance" and its typical recession to Richard Wagner’s "The Grand March." References to Dr. Seuss’ classic "Oh, The Places You’ll Go!" were abound, and boys and girls were garbed in their traditional blue and white, respectively. However, this marked the first year boys and girls did not file in a scattered arrangement to form columns of the different colors.
   The practice of the salutatorian, in this case Abhilash Karthik, remembering the past, and the valedictorian looking to future still held. Even the recent past, however, held a number of changes for the class.
   Ms. Arvizu noted that the class had "survived construction" of school buildings and had experienced four different principals including herself. She gave special note to the late William Roesch, who died in 2003 after a long battle with cancer.
   For Ms. Arvizu, graduation was especially challenging because it was not just her first year as principal of Hightstown High School, but her first year as a principal anywhere.
   "It was difficult to prepare a speech that would in some way touch each of my graduating students, their parents and my colleagues," she said a few hours before the graduation. "I will breathe a deep sigh of relief once the speech has been delivered and the last diploma conferred!"
   Ms. Arvizu met that challenge, in a way that stayed true to her low-key demeanor and focus on students. She bypassed the opportunity to deliver platitudes and instead focused on the accomplishments of the graduating class. She noted that the school’s classrooms produced 50 National Honors Society members and its athletic fields produced four individual champions and seven team champions.
   Now that the diplomas have been delivered and many of the graduating seniors go on to vacations and parties in their honor, Pramod must surely hope that his words stay with his friends and classmates as each calendar year turns.
   Quoting Mark Twain, he said, "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did do." Or, in Pramod’s own words, "Take risks, have fun and remember all the good things in life."