A first Commencement for the new high school

Together for the last time, 429 students gathered to celebrate not only the ending of one chapter of their lives but the start to another. 

Friends and family gathered in the Kennedy Middle School gymnasium this Sunday to celebrate the class of 2025 as they graduated from Waltham High School. Eager faces in red gowns flooded the gym as they embarked on their future.

The community was welcomed by students Alexa Doherty, Kayleen Mukire, Ariana Bushey, Fatima Fabian Lopez, Aimee Le, and Liam Connolly, as well as by Mayor Jeanette A. McCarthy, Superintendent Marisa Mendonsa, Principal Darrell Braggs, School Committee Vice Chair Debra Coleman and the class of 2025’s Associate Principal Robert Lyons. In addition, words of welcome were given in more than five different languages including American Sign Language. 

Among the 429 graduates, 14 were the first students to graduate from the Waltham Valor High School, which opened this past fall. 

A class of firsts

The commencement ceremony this year was unique from those of previous years. These students would be the first to graduate from the new high school. 

Class President Kayleen Mukire noted, “[They] are special…the new Waltham High School took five years to build…that means five classes came and went while the halls were being built.” While others called it good timing, Mukire called it “destiny”. 

These seniors were also the first class to graduate with Marisa Mendonsa serving as their superintendent. Mendonsa shared that the class of 2025 “has made a lasting impact on her.” She has learned from those who advocated for themselves and their peers and expressed the value of advocacy as one student’s voice has “influenced many of [her] decisions for the district.”

Numerous speeches emphasized that while the occasion of the graduation was temporary, the community that was built over the past four years would be permanent. 

Following the exuberant whistles and applause, caps went airborne. For a moment the smiles faded and wary emotions struck the faces of 429 graduates as they realized the weight of the transition they had just made. Soon the students would attend different orientation days, go into different fields of work, and visit new places deprived of the company of one another. 

The feeling of family runs thick within this class. As Associate Principal Lyons stated, he has “four kids at home and over 400 here at Waltham High School.” 

Once they had caught their caps and turned to face their classmates, the new graduates searched for comfort in shared feelings and in embracing one another. As they dispersed, they no doubt held their associate principal’s parting words in mind: “You have the power to shape the future, but also to heal the present.”