120 receive diplomas at Hill Auditorium
Community High School celebrated the graduates in the Class of 2026 on Friday, May 29th at Hill Auditorium at the school’s 54th Commencement Ceremony.
Dean Marci Tuzinsky highlighted how much change members of the class of 2026 have gone through over their time at Community and how fortunate the staff at school is to see the growth in every student. “Think about you sitting in Community High School when you first got there, you were 14 years-old and they say that you don’t make that kind of a developmental leap between the age of like 14 and 18, since you were born, so between 0 and 1, and we get to watch that,” Tuzinsky said.
The commencement ceremony included performances by the Community Jazz Ensemble and a poetry reading by Kaylee Gadepalli.
What makes Community’s ceremony unique every year is that every graduate gets the chance to give their own short commencement speech. This year included grads offering thanks to family, friends and staff, sharing funny stories, reading poems and even some tap dancing.
Nick Villamor highlighted that students that choose Community reject a lot of social norms and constructs and wants his classmates to remember this going forward. “I just hope that we can all, like seven years from now or whatever, reflect back, it doesn’t matter what company you’re working at, whatever you’re doing. You might reflect back on your college experience, sure Spartan, Wolverine, whatever. It doesn’t matter, because you were an undocile rainbow zebra first, and you’ll always be one.”
Mallory Towers said while she was always chasing perfection at Community she learned the importance of making mistakes and growing from them. “Teachers like Liz and Tracy and Maneesha all never asked me to be perfect, but rather gave me the opportunity to explore my strengths and weaknesses. Thank you Community for showing me the perfection that can be found in imperfections.”
Dallas Scudder offered some advice from 13 years ago. “When I started kindergarten, my mom gave me some advice and I’d like to play it forward. Wash your hands and be a friend.”
Abhi Velivela was the last grad to speak and reflected on what he heard from his classmates. “I initially wanted to give you guys a speech talking about how sometimes we’re kind of capable of more than what we’re thinking about and who we think we are, but after hearing today’s speeches, I don’t think I need to tell you guys that. So to be frank, wherever life takes us next, I hope that you all remember that we’ve already overcome challenges that we once thought impossible.”
During the commencement ceremony several students were presented with special awards.
Jill Award – Neila Shee
Community Resources Award – Ronan Laporte
Judith DeWoskin Writing Award – Janaki Nallamothu
Nathan Lydell Hall Memorial Scholarship – Lu Bliss
Bruce Bartman Memorial Scholarship – Nina Beals
You can watch CTN’s complete broadcast of the graduation ceremony here. Check out more photos from the event on the Ann Arbor Public Schools Facebook page.
Be the first to comment