BMHS grads urged to be true to selves

I've been silversmithing for ten years. I got my start at the tender age of thirteen thanks to Frances Killam, my mentor, friend and now studiomate. Just finished my honors graduation requirements in the Women, Gender and Sexuality program at Harvard. Would've graduated in the spring but for the fact that i was recovering from debilitating tendonitis in both arms. Too much cleaning harvard students' toilets and farmwork.

From the beginning of Commencement Day, when graduates and their professors commenced sprouting out of the morning mist in full regalia, ’til the end of Afternoon Exercises, when all and sundry fell under the spell of J.K. Rowling’s verbal wizardry, four curious, stealthy, and alert writers from the Gazette prowled around the Yard and its environs, eyes and ears open for the most vivid, moving, and humorous moments of this most important of days. Some of their observations follow.

Good morning, Mather
Mather House seniors were roused by the call of bagpipes at 5:45 a.m. on Commencement Day. In keeping with House tradition, a bagpiper strolled through the courtyard and circled the towers, playing tunes at full blast to wake the graduates.

"A lot of the students had left their windows open," the bagpiper explained, "so I think it was hard for them to ignore the music."

Once all were fully awake and fed, the bagpiper led the happy crowd up to the Memorial Church for the Senior Class Chapel Service. Presumably, the graduates were more pleased to listen to the Scottish pipes after a good meal and strong coffee.

Dunkin’ Donuts
Speaking of coffee, Commencement morning was a busy one for the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise on Bow Street. Lines stretched out the door at 8 a.m., as graduates, families, and faculty members fueled up for the day. According to the manager, the store sells about twice as much coffee on Commencement morning as it does on an average Thursday. Lattes were flying over the counter, as were honey-dipped doughnuts.

But of course
Before the ceremonies began, the sheriff of Middlesex County rode into Harvard Yard on a white horse — named, appropriately, "Chief."

The Commencement caller
Fred Abernathy, Gordon McKay Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Engineering, took up his post as he has done regularly for the past four years as Commencement caller in the Old Yard. Atop a small podium, the scholar, in a voice and style worthy of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, organized the Commencement procession for the Morning Exercises with a healthy dose of witty lines like, "My, but the faculty is colorful on a gray, overcast day" and "Students, it is customary for [you] to applaud when the faculty marches between your ranks. This is your chance to thank them for all those countless hours of lecture preparation."

Abernathy also offered a stream of time-travel trivia aimed to take the reunion classes back to their Harvard days. Abernathy pointed out that in 1983, the year the 25th anniversary class graduated, Microsoft Word was first released, and in 1973, the year the 35th anniversary class graduated, the Science Center opened and the World Trade Center in New York was completed, claiming the title of the world’s tallest building

According to Abernathy, some of the alumni protested when they learned they would march directly into Tercentenary Theatre instead of marching the more circuitous route through the Old Yard and the ranks of graduating seniors that lined part of the way. Some quickly complained that they had flown thousands of miles just to participate in the traditional ritual and wanted to partake in the complete course. They were promptly allowed to do so.

Oldster on the march
One woman seeking a good place to watch the morning procession told it like it is. After being directed to a likely spot, she was asked whether she had a youngster graduating. "No," she quipped, "I have an oldster." Her husband was in the 50th reunion class.

The Harvard Shop
The Harvard Shop, the student-run store on JFK Street that sells Harvard insignia merchandise, set up a tent in front of Boylston Hall and did a brisk business, selling out of white-and-crimson umbrellas on Wednesday, even selling the store manager’s personal umbrella by mistake. On Thursday, long-sleeve Harvard T-shirts and sweatshirts were the hottest-selling items for the cool, damp day. Members of the Commencement crowd bought the clothes and immediately pulled them on over their more formal attire in an effort to keep warm in the unseasonably cool temperatures.

But temperatures flared when some who were attending the ceremonies realized the legendary Tercentenary Theatre was actually an outdoor space between Widener Library and the Memorial Church, said Sam Harrison ’10, who manned the tent and frequently had to describe the theatre’s exact locale to the confused commencement attendees. "One woman said ‘You expect me to sit outside in the rain?’" said Harrison, who offered to sell her an umbrella.

Extreme drumming
Commencement Day is no picnic for the percussion players in the Harvard University Band. The bass drums and "quad" drums (a set of four smaller instruments) weigh about 40 pounds, and the musicians must carry them with special shoulder packs for a 45-minute march around the Yard and Tercentenary Theatre.

"It’s not really heavy when you first pick it up," explained one member, "but after about five minutes you really start to feel the weight."

Several reported that by the end of Commencement Day they usually have calluses and blisters — one band member even said his hands have bled.

With that comment, another percussionist held up her hands, encased in protective black leather gloves.

"I’m older and wiser," she quipped, wiggling her fingers. "You live and learn."

Rowling fans
References to the imaginary world of witches and wizards created by Commencement speaker J.K. Rowling poked their heads up at odd moments during the day’s exercises. Perhaps the oddest was during the opening prayer, which intoned hopefully that the graduates would be kept from being "muggle-headed" and not overlook the wonders of the world around them. "Muggle" is a term Rowling coined in her books for those who have no magical powers.

Jumping the gun
Eager Ph.D. candidates interrupted President Drew Faust with cheers and whistles as she began to confer their degrees.

"I’m not doooone," she admonished gently, with a smile. The crowd quieted down.

Safety school on display
The comments at the conferring of honorary degrees are often noted for clever wordplay and sometimes inside jokes. The degree citation for child development and education pioneer James Comer’s honorary doctor of laws degree referred to an ongoing and age-old rivalry. Comer, who has spent his career at Yale and is the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry there, had to endure a bit of ribbing about his home institution before getting his sheepskin.

"He has achieved all this despite having spent his academic career in a remote southern Connecticut city, perhaps best known for its pizza," Provost Steven E. Hyman said with appropriate solemnity.

President Drew Faust picked up where Hyman left off a moment later, praising Comer for "reshaping schools as ‘New Havens’ of learning."

An appreciation
One of the day’s biggest ovations came for someone who wasn’t even in New England during the Commencement Exercises. After the last honorary degree was conferred, President Faust said that a degree was planned for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, who couldn’t attend because he was recuperating from surgery at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina to treat his recently diagnosed brain tumor. Faust said the degree will be conferred at another appropriate ceremony in the near future, thanked Kennedy for being a tireless friend of education, and asked for applause for him from the audience, which enthusiastically complied.

No rest for the weary
Though graduates celebrated the end of (or at least a pause from) homework and studying, not all Commencement attendees enjoyed a work-free afternoon.

In Boylston Hall, the younger siblings of one graduate — a senior and a sophomore in high school — were camped out with a laptop, paper, and schoolbooks, trying to finish their homework.

As families filed in and out of Boylston to escape the rain, the sophomore typed away on an outline of themes in George Orwell’s "1984." Her brother was leafing through a treatise by Wittgenstein.

"We’ve been inside most of the morning," he said. "It’s hard to see and kind of rainy, so we figured we might as well stay here and be productive."

Props
During Morning Exercises, graduates of the Harvard Kennedy School showed up with their bright blue and green inflatable globes of the world, which were bounced around pretty freely.

Law School graduates wielded gavels. Harvard Extension School graduates had inflatable models of an Aladdin-like oil lamp. (A burning lamp — the symbol of learning by night — is at the base of the School’s shield.) There were also a few sheaves of wheat among the same graduates — a reference to the two bushels of wheat on the Extension School shield. Two bushels of wheat was the fee for courses given originally by the Lowell Institute, the Extension School’s 19th century precursor.

Graduates from the Harvard Graduate School of Design wore yellow caution tape draped over their shoulders. Caution: construction under way. And you can’t have construction without design.

sporting a "garden" theme to reflect their commitment to shared cooking duties in the House and a love of high-quality food. One Co-op member adorned his mortarboard with green beans, lemon, garlic leaves, a grape, a blueberry, and raisins. Another beamed beneath a collection of empty egg cartons, while a third showed off a creative necklace of carrots and forks. One student held a stalk of not-quite-mature garlic.

When asked why she chose that particular vegetable, she replied simply, "Because it’s beautiful."

The Dudley Co-op is growing garlic in the House garden, and according to co-op members the crop will be ready for consumption in about a month and a half.

First and last on display
During the conferring of degrees, the changes to Harvard’s top leadership during this year of transition were apparent.

Among those addressing students for the first time were the deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, of Medicine, of Design, of Harvard College, and of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, while Venkatesh Narayanamurti, both the founding and outgoing dean of the new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and longtime Harvard School of Public Health Dean Barry Bloom presented their degree candidates for the last time.

Overheard
"You’re supposed to look interested." The Rev. Peter Gomes to Harvard College seniors, standing in line as faculty members process by.

"Excuse me, where did you get this very elegant item?" One woman asking another attendee about her plastic poncho, complete with hood. The response: "This thing here? They were just giving ’em away!"

Class of 1958
As they waited in the Old Yard for the Afternoon Exercises to begin, members of Harvard’s Class of 1958 reminisced about campus life 50 years ago. According to the group, Adams was far and above their favorite House on campus. Bob Myers, a former tuba player with the Crimson Band, clad, somewhat reluctantly, in a white painter’s hat with the words "The Great 58" printed on the front, explained why: It was the easiest House to sneak girls into, Myers said. "There were lots of doors and only one supervisor, and he practiced ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’"

Musical mayhem
The Harvard University Band — "mayhem, music, and wit since 1919," according to its Web site — trooped noisily up the walk in front of Holden Chapel on the afternoon of June 5. All the better to serenade the oldest alumni on hand for the Commencement Exercises.

The brass and wind sections blew mightily: flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, and two gruff tubas. The bell kit tinkled, cymbals crashed on time, snare drums snapped, and big bass drums boomed. Drum Major Greg Dyer ’09 — in the traditional tuxedo — got the best workout of the day, his right arm pumping the long baton to keep pace.

On cue, a few players periodically ducked out of line to jog and prance past the crowd, standing amused in the shade of tents.

The band finished up with a rousing version of "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard," a fight song that dates back about 90 years.

Cutting to the chase, in Latin
Jonathan Byrnes, outgoing Harvard Alumni Association president, introduced the first of the traditional songs of the Afternoon Exercises, "Gaudeamus Igitur," by pointing out that it originated as a 13th century student drinking song. The days must have been more somber back then, because the song, sung in Latin, strips life to its bare essentials, according to the English translation:

"Let us rejoice while we are young; after our delightful youth, after grievous old age, the earth will hold us."

Stubborn in shades
Despite the gray skies, one College senior sported a pair of snazzy white Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses for the Afternoon Exercises.

"The shades aren’t necessary, but I decided to be optimistic about the weather," he said. "To be honest, I think they’ve helped me make a lot of friends today."

A nod to Potter
During her address to the Harvard Alumni Association during the Afternoon Exercises, Harvard President Drew Faust delivered a serious speech, answering critics who decry the dollars raised by universities for their endowments. Faust made the point that excellence has a cost and that the University is not just a resource for the state or the country, but for the world.

Faust began her speech with a bit of a humorous touch, however, acknowledging that the capacity crowd that filled Tercentenary Theatre was more likely there to hear the next speaker on the agenda, author J.K. Rowling, whose Harry Potter novels are a worldwide phenomenon.

"Witches, wizards, and Muggles of all ages," Faust began to hoots, laughter, and whistles, then added before moving on to more sober topics, "I know I’m the warm-up act."

Child’s delight
Two children’s librarians from the Cambridge Public Library were among the most excited of all the J.K. Rowling fans in attendance at Commencement.

"We told everyone that has walked in [the library] that we were going to see her," one explained. "We are beyond excited."

They said they planned to take lots of pictures and create a montage for display at the library.

When asked what they thought Rowling would talk about, the pair offered several different suggestions. One thing was clear, though: The famed author would not disappoint.

"Children’s authors know how to do it," one of the librarians said. "She’ll keep our attention, and at the end we will come away having learned something."

Lone Potter
There was only one Harry Potter on hand, sitting far back in the deep rows of folding chairs: Alastair Beeson, age 10, of Manhattan, whose recycled Halloween costume — round glasses and Gryffindor robes — matched his straight-bang haircut.

He clutched a Sony digital camera (whose magic is the equal of Dumbledore) and waited for Rowling to walk past on her way to the stage. When told she wouldn’t be, Beeson employed a modern turn of phrase: "Bummer."

WHRB in action
Most of the thousands who passed through Harvard’s Tercentenary Theatre on Commencement Day probably never even noticed the small group perched atop one of the two cement blocks that flank the Widener steps. The men busily went about their task at a tiny table with headphones, a microphone, and a small mixing board as they produced a live broadcast of the Commencement activities for Harvard’s radio station, WHRB. Over the years, even the most inclement weather hasn’t stopped dedicated volunteers at the student-run station from producing the live feed from the same lofty outdoor location. The on-site Commencement simulcast has been hitting the airwaves since 1957.

GSAS baby boom
If an unrepresentative 10-minute sampling of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences diploma ceremony Thursday afternoon in Sanders Theatre is any indication, there is a baby boom going on among Harvard doctoral candidates.

The ceremony reflected the reality that as one gets older, education has to vie for time with a student’s other obligations. A fair number of doctoral candidates who crossed the stage to shake hands with well-wishing deans and faculty mentors had to juggle diploma envelopes and round-headed babies to free a hand. A few made the long-awaited march with a mini-entourage, a baby in the arm and a little one or two at their side.

English and American Literatures and Language held the unofficial record with five children joining three newly minted Ph.D. parents, beating out similar hard-working parents in economics, classics, and chemistry and chemical biology.

Who needs sleep?
Allan M. Brandt, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), learned some hard lessons about sleep during his first year of graduate study in 1974. He shared a few words on all-nighters for attendees of the GSAS degree ceremony in Sanders Theatre on Thursday.

With a deadline looming for a chapter of his master’s thesis, Brandt recalled, he had to stay up writing for three consecutive nights.

"After the second successive night without sleep I thought I might die," he continued. "But on the third morning, having at last produced a chapter, filled with grammatical and unusual spelling errors, I believed I had discovered [that] if you could stay up three nights in a row, you would never require sleep again."

Brandt quipped that "humankind had previously failed to make this pathbreaking discovery, that three back-to-back all-nighters left one without the need to ever sleep again."

"Imagine how fast I would complete my dissertation, with this new piece of unprecedented knowledge about circadian rhythms," he said, pausing for effect. "NOT."

Best question
"If my baton has any magic powers," asked of Marshal Kristin O’Connor Ed.M., ’00, who was directing traffic and handing out programs before the afternoon ceremonies, by a number of excited 10-year-olds on hand to hear Commencement speaker and Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling. Marshals, who assist in guiding the crowds around campus during Commencement, traditionally carry the black batons that bear a striking resemblance to a magician’s wand as part of their ceremonial outfit.

Best wardrobe accessory
The omnipresent, clear plastic poncho was a hit with both the young and the old.

Best nickname
"Faustie!" enthusiastically yelled in the Morning Exercises by an excited graduating senior, who accompanied it with an exuberant, "I love you!"

Best graduation cap
The bright, swirling aqua blue design painted on the graduation cap of graduating senior Erin Stephens-North that cleverly matched her blue-streaked hair. Runner-up: A pirate captain’s hat complete with skull, crossbones, and tassel worn by senior Hezzy Smith. "I didn’t really think it through," Smith admitted of the hat he found as he was packing his things at Quincy House. "If I had, I probably wouldn’t have done it."

Commentary by Corydon Ireland, Alvin Powell, Emily T. Simon, and Colleen Walsh

Billerica Minuteman on Townonline.com

BMHS grads urged to be true to selves

By Margaret Smith / Staff Writer

Friday, June 4, 2006

Reading their speeches to each other are twins Caitlin Stephens-North (left, Salutatorian) and Erin Stephens-North (Valedictorian).
(Photo by Ann Ringwood)

It was an evening of joy, of memories, and words about making choices in the quest to be true to oneself, and pride in hometown roots.

Cheers of an exuberant Billerica Memorial High School Class of 2006 reverberated in the Paul E. Tsongas Arena at the June 3 graduation ceremony, during which women stood front and center, including twin sisters Caitlin and Erin Stephens-North, respectively, the class salutatorian and valedictorian, and Class of 1956 member Molly Gleason Sheehy, a dean at Middlesex Community College.

"How many times have you heard the phrase, 'just be yourself?' We've all probably heard it a million times, from our parents as we head off to our first days of high school, then perhaps to job interviews, or college interviews, or as it will soon come to pass, our respective colleges," said Caitlin. While the command may sound deceptively simple, she said, "What is simple is not being ourselves, ignoring our inner cores of truth in exchange for easy answers, answers constantly bombarding us from every direction." Those answers, she said, "tempt us to do or say things to please others without stopping to ask ourselves what we truly desire. They tempt us to make homophobic jokes, because we think that's what our friends want to hear, or to conceal the fact that we love collecting rare species of caterpillars, because we'd be branded dorks for the rest of our days." Caitlin cited the struggles of comedian Margaret Cho and her journey from the star of a failed television comedy to a sought-after standup comic. "After being offered a role in a sitcom about her life, the network asked her to lose 30 pounds in two weeks...despite the fact that she complied, and her kidneys failed, the show was still taken off the air." Caitlin said she looks to Cho as a hero, because of her courage to be true to herself. "Today, she is an incendiary comic, with an unconventional style, and waistline, using her own identity, and not one fabricated to please, as her means of success."

Caitlin also talked about personal friends whose individuality inspired her, including a friend named Bonnie, who left college to take on multiple roles as a "social action organizer-street musician- whole foods caterer-message therapist," and her own dream of uniting her passion for music with social change.

Sister Erin, who with Caitlin was featured last year in a Billerica Minuteman article, encouraged her classmates to "live in active relationship with beauty, be moved by the wonders and horrors around you, and react with energy." She said, "Human kindness, a piece of transcendent work, or a succulent bite of food are all incarnations of beauty. Apathy, hate, intolerance, and superficiality are all found where beauty is not."

She also cited a pioneering woman - Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. She said Kahlo "endured great physical pain after an accident that crippled her, but chose to acknowledge her pain rather than run from it." She added, "Frida felt and felt deeply. She didn't daintily skip along the surface of life in hopes of avoiding great pain or joy. She took in beauty and she felt its absence, gave it form in her artwork, and consequently, lived a life of profound beauty that has made her an artistic icon."

She told her classmates, "I smiled from the deepest part of my being when I saw two women at my church finally become legally married after living together for 10 years and successfully raising two sons. I was last truly outraged when the atrocities committed by our government in the prisons of Abu Ghraib became public. As high school students, we have been moved by extraordinary teachers who have encouraged us to be passionate and to care. We've been moved by performances, plays on the field, or even conversation at lunch. This is the act of feeling, of being open.

"I could have told you many things that are important to me, pumped my speech full of factoids and propaganda, but I feel as if it is so much more worthwhile to share with you the importance of passion itself, rather than my personal passions, the importance of free-thinking and feeling, not the results of my experience. If what I have said has resonated with you, I know I've succeeded in my one objective this evening."

Class president Lindsay Duffin said her years at Billerica Memorial High School "can best be described as diverse - full of so many experiences and friendships. All of this is a result of the way I grew up in Billerica."

She added, "It's important to remember where you came from, to remember your roots. To get where you are going, you must remember where you came from. Many things have happened to us in the past four years and it would be crazy to think we haven't been shaped by it all. We've all gone through experiences, which have begun to mold us. Take a look around you. Our class is comprised of scholars, athletes, artists, musicians, weirdoes, lovers and cynics." She said, "We all have our own memories. Some hold dear to our hearts, some we might wish to forget, and many that we will fondly reflect on for years to come."

Keynote speaker Molly Gleason Sheehy, who graduated with the first class to graduate from the then-new high school building, talked of her service in the greater Lowell community but paid tribute to her Billerica roots. Recalling her high school years, in which she was a cheerleader, member of the girls' basketball team, and a member of the newspaper staff, she told of happy times, such as convincing faculty to allow students to play music during lunch so they could dance in the cafeteria. She also recalled teachers who supported her dream of going to college. As the oldest of four children in a single-parent home, Sheehy, who hails from the Pinehurst section of town, said her teacher helped her realize that with a part-time job and determination, she could achieve her dreams. She went on to earn a doctoral degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and now serves as dean of the Lowell campus of Middlesex Community College.

She called the next six months a crucial time for graduates, whether they pursue college, the work force, or the military. "You have worked hard, and tonight, you deserve to celebrate with your family and friends."

After the ceremony, graduates reflected on the friends and teachers they would miss, and their excitement about the future. "I'll miss all my friends and teachers. "I'll miss my English teacher, Dr. Lancaster, and my home room teacher, Mr. Bradford," said Tammie Walker, 17. Her next adventure: A job as a masseuse on a cruise line, a plan she said would enable her to earn money, and achieve one of her goals: "I want to travel around the world."

Wearing a tie decorated with Mr. Potato Head and a pin declaring love for the 1980s new wave band, Flock of Seagulls, Greg Isaacson, also 17, said, "I'm going to miss conversations at lunch, and Mr. Bradford, my English teacher." He plans to attend Salem State College and major in English, with a possible second major in art.

Kiet Le, also 17, said he would miss "The people, friends, and teachers," and in particular, "Mr. P," a nickname for his math teacher. "Mr. Piwowar knew math. He used to yell. He would make you love math." He plans to major in physical therapy at Quinnipiac University and eventually obtain his master's degree. "I've always liked to help people with injuries, and so I thought that this would be the best way."

Sarika Sherring, soon to turn 18, said, "I'm going to miss Miss McCarthy, the assistant principal, and Miss Rivard the secretary." She plans to major in pharmacy at Long Island University.

Her graduation represents an achievement not only for herself but her family. As her mother, Elena, stood close by smiling, Sarika said, "I'm just excited to graduate. I'm the first one in my family to graduate from high school."

TO GENIUSES EVERYWHERE [.j.evonne.] jevonneATfastmail.fm
One of the great joys of being on the road these past few weeks was catching the graduation recital of Erin & Caitlin Stephens-North, two New England songsmiths and artists on a higher plane.

How 'bout this
Have your own ideas
MANIFEST them
Use ellipses to get YOUR point across
Because it feels right. Is right.
Use the right color, the right movement, the right interval to convey
Not because it's regurgitated
Because it has to be born
Easy enough to say
Of course not everyone needs to create
Needs to communicate the flickering profundity
Or couldn't tell Quality from mediocrity if they were wearing little "hello-my-name-is" name tags
Though so many fewer than we perceive
If we only dug and thought and didn't settle until we felt
Something, waiting expectantly for reality not knowing we aren't living it
And it won't come until we decide to claim our genius
The Smiling Buddha
The real moments
Of art beauty passion glory wisdom truth transcendence fire bliss agony epiphany euphoria angst revelation nightmare catharsis connection sweet melancholic reflection the present REALITY
They have nothing up on you if you decide to live
Take nothing less than what is worthwhile
It is waiting...

http://bmhswalsh.com/cc1203.htm
Counselor's Corner
A Guidance Newsletter for BMHS Students and Parents

Congratulations to Erin Stephens-North who has earned the designation of AP Scholar by the College Board in recognition of her exceptional achievement on the AP Exams. Erin earned this designation as a junior by receiving grades of 3 or higher (all of Erins were higher!) on three or more AP Exams. Erin is the first student at BMHS to have achieved this honor as a junior. Great job Erin!