Senior Week 2010: WEHS Grads Keep Belief Alive
Students reminded failure is part of the journey and success will follow.
Editor's note: Welcome to Day 8 of Senior Week 2010. Today concludes The Caldwells Patch's 14-story series, featuring graduating seniors from James Caldwell High School, West Essex Regional High School and Mount St. Dominic as they reflect on their high school careers and prepare for the next step in their lives.
Here's a look at Sunday's West Essex commencement ceremony. For more coverage, check out the associated video. There are also photos of Project Graduation's night of games, rides and reminiscing.
Owen Gantz's witty salutatorian speech reminded his West Essex Regional High School Class of 2010 peers to not be afraid of failure.
The senior members of the choir later accentuated his point with a final song worthy of North Caldwell's most famous fictional family, "The Sopranos," with an a cappella version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" that brought smiles to hundreds of graduates, families, faculty and members of the community at Sunday's commencement ceremony at Travis Field.
"How am I going to follow a wonderful performance like that?" Valedictorian Andrew Thierman joked as he took the microphone just after the choir's last crescendo.
The graduating class of 259 seniors marched onto the field—young men dressed in red gowns and the young women in white—as the West Essex band played the "Pomp & Circumstance" processional theme with the sun beaming and temperatures soaring on the artificial turf field.
As the crowd fanned themselves with graduation programs, Gantz had everyone in hysterics with a clever and thoughtful speech that praised failure. Specifically, he credited the West Essex atmosphere that made students unafraid to fail, thereby setting the stage for their success.
"The evil twin of success is failure," Gantz said. "We can't move on to the next phase of our lives until we have accepted both our failures and our successes."
Gantz delighted the crowd when he told a story about his father pointing out a technical definition of "salutatorian."
"Owen, don't they call that person second place? Loser!" he said, bellowing the final word into the microphone.
The University of Pennsylvania-bound Gantz said that even if his silver medal in grades constitutes a failure of sorts, he considered it a success.
"There's nothing I would rather be doing right now than giving our testament to failure," he said, adding a thanks to the teachers for letting their students fail, "but not letting failure define them."
While students praised their teachers, administrators recognized the parents who filled the stands.
West Essex Principal Barbara Longo recounted her pride, having previously seen her two children graduate from the regional school district.
"As parents of graduates, this is as much closure for you as it is a new beginning for students," she said. "It is the culmination of so many moments of celebration."
West Essex Regional School District Superintendent Thomas McMahon told the seniors to never be a stranger on campus.
"We hope you come back often, because you're always welcome here," he said.
Board of Education President Phyllis Helmstetter encouraged the Class of 2010 to spend the summer philosophically, looking back on what she called "the trials and tribulations of growing up," from "GPAs to prom."
"As you spend this final summer of childhood, reflect on and celebrate all you've learned and all you will accomplish," she said.
Class President Bryan Weissbach lauded some of his peers' achievements, including breaking fundraising records and boosting test scores, and summed up the spirit of the ceremony with a phrase in his stately speech.
"Our past six years we grew to unity as a group," he said. "We now stand on the shoulders of the future."
In case you missed it:
