426 graduates celebrate at EMU arena
The Huron High School Class of 2026 gathered to mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another at a commencement ceremony that wove together live music, student voices, and the weight of earned achievement.
The ceremony opened as always to Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance, performed live by the Symphony Band and Orchestra as the graduating class filed in. After the Choir Seniors delivered the National Anthem, the program turned to the business of celebration.
Speaking on behalf of the Class of 2026, Tamsin Aherne paused to recognize the teachers who helped students reach graduation despite the challenges they faced along the way.
“We would not have been here without them,” she said, asking her classmates to show their appreciation for the educators who supported them throughout their journey.
Aherne reflected on the hard work, risks, and obstacles that brought the class to graduation, noting that students now stand just steps away from the next chapter of their lives. As they move forward, she expressed confidence that her classmates will continue to make a positive impact on the world.
She encouraged graduates to remember the power of their voices and their ability to create change wherever they go. Above all, she urged them to lead with kindness, calling it one of life’s greatest strengths, even during difficult times.
Principal Ché Carter highlighted Huron High School’s diverse community, noting that students come from every corner of the world and are encouraged to think critically, ask questions, and pursue learning with purpose. He said the school’s commitment to inquiry-based education helps students build meaningful connections and develop a strong sense of citizenship.
Carter also celebrated the accomplishments of the Class of 2026. Among the 426 graduates, 101 students earned gold cords for achieving a GPA of 3.9 or higher. The class also included 19 National Merit finalists, semifinalists, and presidential scholarship candidates.
He said those achievements reflected not only academic talent, but also perseverance, discipline, and a commitment to excellence.
Carter invited family members and friends to recognize the graduates with enthusiastic applause, calling it a well-deserved moment of celebration for the Huron High School Class of 2026.
A student ensemble of Rebekka Port, Grace Johnson, Maddie Pale, Nathalie Cho, Salem Dinh, Carlos Flores-Scott, Helio Fong, Camilo Ojeda, and JP Phelps—along with Principal Carter—performed Rebekka’s and Carter’s original composition Ground Control.
Paula Casillas-Lopez and Nicole Harris, accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra, performed For Good from Stephen Schwartz’s Wicked —a a fitting choice for graduation as it speaks to the positive ways people change one another over time.
Graduate Amadou Sidibe opened his remarks by asking his fellow Huron High School seniors to recognize the families, friends, and supporters who had helped them reach graduation day. Then he turned to a quality he believes defines the Class of 2026: ambition.
Not the kind that appears on a résumé, he clarified. The crowd laughed as he described students asking a seventh-hour teacher for just one minute of early dismissal in hopes of beating their classmates to the new Chick-fil-A on Washtenaw Avenue. Huron students, he said, are driven.
That same determination, he argued, had carried them through four years of exams, college applications, extracurricular commitments, and Friday night football games. The journey had not always been polished. Sometimes it looked like walking into a club meeting without knowing anyone. Sometimes it meant losing two hours to doomscrolling after promising yourself you would focus. Along the way, students learned how to adapt, recover, and keep moving forward even when they did not have everything figured out.
The lesson he was taking with him was simple: audacity is rewarded. He pointed to a phrase that had stayed with him: “Closed mouths don’t eat” — a reminder that opportunities rarely come to those unwilling to ask for them, and that growth often begins with the courage to take the first step.
Graduation, he told his classmates, was more than a celebration of what they had completed. It was evidence of their persistence. They had faced challenges, adjusted course when necessary, and continued forward.
He closed by encouraging the Class of 2026 to remain curious, keep asking questions, and pursue opportunities even when the answer might be no. Huron, he said, had not produced people who wait for life to happen to them. They go after it.
Hanna Nixon and Hailey Sell presented the class gifts on behalf of their peers; the Board of Education accepted them in turn.
The Bel Canto and A Cappella Choirs, joined by the Symphony Band and Orchestra, then performed “On the Banks of the Huron,” the school’s alma mater, arranged by alumni Berofsky (’18), Collins (’18), and Hoffmeyer (’19).
Citizen and Scholarship Honors were bestowed to the following students:
Paul K. Meyers Award (in recognition of outstanding citizenship, leadership and service to the school): Amadou Sidibe and Paula Casillas Lopez.
U of. M Citizenship Award (in recognition of outstanding citizenship, leadership and service to the school): Luke Bunnell and Elena Franzese.
Dr. Martin Luther King Award (for outstanding contributions in the field of civil rights): Thayer Wallace and Tejasvi Ramanthan.
Charles Baird Humanitarian Award (for humanitarian service toward others): Nicholas Beard, Meer Ahmed, Satvika Ramanthan, and Emily Hu.
Dr. Arthur Williams Integrity Award (for students who have made positive contributions to the Huron Climate and display the characteristics of friendship, understanding and optimism): Max Pinsky, Isaac Thomas, Tamsin Aherne, and Jessa Mose-Newman.
Kathryn Jones, a Social Studies teacher at Huron, delivered the commencement address.
Jones opened by congratulating the Class of 2026, their families, teachers, counselors, and coaches, acknowledging all who had guided the graduates to that milestone.
Drawing on her background as an American history teacher, Jones framed the evening as the students’ own declaration of independence — a fitting parallel, she noted, as the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding. She reflected on the revolutionary era as a time when people of vastly different backgrounds, nationalities, and circumstances united in pursuit of liberation, self-determination, and the freedom to shape their own destinies.
Jones saw the same spirit in the Class of 2026. She described them as a bold and diverse generation already reimagining civic life, passionate about social justice, sovereignty, and sustainability — inheritors, she said, of a mission begun by figures like Chief Pontiac, Lemuel Haynes, and John Adams.
While she acknowledged the graduates’ hard-won “freedom from’s” — bathroom passes, standardized forms, and prescribed schedules — Jones pressed them to consider the more consequential question: what would they do with their “freedom to’s”?
Her answer centered on citizenship. Not citizenship defined by borders or birthplace, but in the philosophical sense: a recognition of one’s inherent value, one’s belonging, and one’s responsibility to the common good. She invoked philosopher Bertrand Russell’s concept of becoming citizens of the universe — people who orient themselves toward all of creation, who pursue objective truth, genuine justice, and a love expansive enough to encompass not just family and country, but all of life.
Jones closed with a charge both grand and grounded. She urged graduates to thank their parents, read widely, put down their phones and talk to strangers, practice a second language, walk instead of drive, hug a tree — and register to vote. It had been an honor, she told them, to share four years and that final evening with the Huron Rats.
Superintendent Jazz Parks formally presented the Huron High School Class of 2026, calling it “a privilege to be here…to honor and celebrate each of you…as you achieve this milestone.” Parks expressed gratitude to parents and caregivers for their years of support and for entrusting their students to Ann Arbor Public Schools, and also recognized the many teachers, paraeducators, administrators, and support staff who guided the class throughout their educational journey.
Principal Carter oversaw the conferral of diplomas, after which Assistant PrincipalMarcus Edmondson, , performed the Last Official Act — the traditional moment that formally releases the class into the world beyond Huron’s doors.
It’s a long-held tradition that graduates recess to the Throne Room and End Credits from John Williams’ score for Star Wars, and that was the case this night. Performed once again by the Symphony Band and Orchestra, the music provided a jubilant close as the newest Huron alumni left the building to congratulations, hugs and fist-bumps by faculty who formed a gauntlet.
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.
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