The high school highlights from Valley Stream Class of 2023 graduation celebration

Hundreds of graduating seniors from the district’s three high schools — North, Central and South — strode across commencement stages last week, clad in ceremonial caps and gowns, to receive their diplomas. It was a milestone moment for graduates as they ended their high school careers with loved ones by their sides.

Each school, in keeping with tradition, held its own graduation ceremony. At each one, members of the Class of 2023 gathered beneath a white tent at  Memorial Junior High School, surrounded by a throng of adoring parents and extended family and friends snapping photos.

This year’s graduates were freshmen, still settling into their new identity as high schoolers, when a global pandemic changed everything. The coronavirus shooed them out of the classroom and back into their homes. For the better part of their high school lives, they interacted with their fellow students and teachers in squares on a screen.

They missed major school events and in-person activities, canceled on account of the virus. Rather than dealing with the usual high school concerns of making it onto the volleyball team or asking a cute classmate out on a date, they had to think twice before going out without a mask or breaking social distancing rules. They have navigated a mental health crisis, and lost learning due to Covid-19. But through it all, they persevered.

“Walking through the doors of North High School on the first day of seventh grade as terrified 12-year-olds, we had no idea what was about to be thrown our way,” North High’s senior class president, Victoria Scarpa, told her fellow graduates. “‘Stay calm,’ we told ourselves. Three years later, the world shut down, and we resorted to online learning as a global pandemic forced us to be confined to a screen and divided from our childhood friends. We could not socialize. We had to change how we learned. We lost our physical outlets and learned to live a boring routine at home.

“Could we have given up? Yes,” Scarpa added. “But we certainly did not. We decided to breathe through it, and grew stronger from it.

“When the restrictions were finally lifted and we returned to school, we made our first and last normal year of high school count,” she continued. “We supported our peers in their games, shows, and concerts. Even a simple acknowledgment or smile in the high school always reminded us that we were in this together, each experiencing the same array of emotions.”

“When I asked myself what I will remember most about the Class of 2023,” South Principal Maureen Henry said, “the word that kept running through my mind was united. United in school, united during a pandemic — and most recently, united through the Canadian wildfire smoke. This class always found a way to bond and celebrate each other.”

“Over the past six years, I’ve watched as each of you served as a light to guide each other’s fires,” South Valedictorian Steven Huang told his classmates. “The crowns atop your heads prove just that. As we prepare to expand coast to coast, our focus shouldn’t be driven to finding that light, but to be it.

“You should go about seeing color in a world of black and white, embrace that inner child, and see that rainbow that shines within,” Huang added. “Your story is about memories, experiences, tears, laughs, friendships. But even more, it’s the people that help shape it.”

“We must be proud of what we’ve achieved and how far we have come,” said Daniel Iqbal, co-president of Central’s senior class. “Although our classes at Central High School have become our place of comfort, we have simply outgrown this building. Our time as Central students has passed. We’ve been given the necessary tools from our school, the knowledge from our mentors, and the passion from within our hearts to take on the new experiences that await us.”

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