ELMSDALE, P.E.I. – It’s not unusual for a teacher to ask students to raise their hand. During Westisle Composite High School’s 39th graduation exercises Thursday night, class valedictorian Chandler Gard had the same request for teachers, parents and graduates.
“Raise your hand if you are proud of my fellow graduates. Raise your hands if you are proud of yourselves for helping them get there.”
Gard said he shares those feelings of pride.
Diplomas and certificates were awarded to 141 students and the class of 2018 shared prizes, scholarships and bursaries valued at more than $800,000.
Breanna Rayner received the final group of prizes to be awarded, topped off with the Governor General’s medal and the principal’s scholastic achievement award for first-place standing.
Learning part-way through the year that she was in the running for the award, the daughter of Connie and Stanley Rayner said that was almost overwhelming.
“I just tried to do my best for the rest of the year.”
She applied to two universities and received scholarship offers from both before deciding to attend UPEI to further her studies in the Sciences.
Gard and Lindsay Callaghan received awards as male and female students best combining athletic and academic achievement, while Aiden Kinch and Sterling MacKendrick were named the best all-around male students, and Lindsay Callaghan and Gemma Shea were named the best all-around female students.
School principal, Heidi Morgan, shared a message about perseverance in the face of failure.
She prefaced remarks with, “It seems a bit ironic to think of failing at this point in your life when you’ve obviously all been very successful in your education, but I feel there is a lesson to be learned in all of this as you move forward to the next steps of your life.”
She listed several people well known for their success, including Oprah who got fired from her first TV job as an anchor and went on to create her own television network, and basketball superstar Michael Jordan who was cut from his high school basketball team.
“I have failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed,” she quoted Jordan.
She noted that Walt Disney was once told he lacked imagination.
“Failure is a part of living,” Morgan told the graduating class, noting the choices they make as a result of their struggles can become stepping stones.
“Remember that each day is an opportunity to make it better than the last.”
She concluded with a quote from JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series: “It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you lived so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.”
“Before you is my graduating class,” Gard addressed the full gymnasium. “Just as the future is limitless, so is the possibilities and the potential of this group. Raise your hand if you are proud of that.”
And many hands went skyward.
