By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
An emotional West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North Principal Michael Zappichi bid farewell to the high school’s Class of 2015 Thursday afternoon — the last time that he would present a graduating class to school district officials.
Mr. Zappichi is retiring, effective July 1, but not before using his last graduation ceremony to impart some advice to the seniors on the nature of leadership. The ceremony was held at the Sun Bank Arena in Trenton.
Leadership is about letting go of one’s ego, Mr. Zappichi told the seniors. The key to leadership is not making other people follow, but to become the kind of person that they want to follow, he said. Leaders build trust, listen to others and mentor them.
“We need to recognize how powerful we can be. If you can change one person’s understanding of what they are capable of doing, you have changed the whole world for that person. It’s a simple idea. I like to think of all of you as leaders,” Mr. Zappichi said, as he left the stage and waded into a sea of blue caps and gowns.
Senior class President Christina Hayduchok also weighed in with some advice for her classmates — to find their passion and to remember that there is no single path to success. Nevertheless, they should work hard because “you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets,” she said.
To his classmates, class valedictorian Andrew Ding explained the difference between information and education. Information is what one learns — “the ‘what’ and ‘how,’ but not the ‘why,’ ” he said. It is not enough to accept what one has been told, he said, urging them to question and challenge everything.
“Let go of your assumptions. If and only if you can do that, you can reach a higher understanding, and everything you learned becomes not only facts to remember, but tools to use. As students of High School North, we should be able to do that,” Andrew said.
Then, it was time for Mr. Zappichi to present the 400-plus members of the West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North’s Class of 2015 to Superintendent of Schools David Aderhold and the school board so they could receive their diplomas.
“This year, the last shall be first,” Mr. Zappichi said slyly. In a twist in the traditional presentation of diplomas — noting that his last name begins with a “Z” and that his name was always called last — “we are going to start (handing out diplomas) with the Zs,” he said.
And one by one — starting with Miranda Zhou and ending with Chanchal Agrawal— the Class of 2015 walked across the stage to receive their diplomas and a handshake from school district officials.
