young not leave you ok good afternoon ladies and gentlemen my name is michael harvey and i'm the principal bell on high school and i'd like to welcome all of you on behalf of the administration faculty and students to our commencement exercises for the class of two thousand and eleven as we get begin a program i'd like to introduce our honored guests dr georgette whistle superintendent of public schools mr kevin cutting him i'd also like to recognize our student marshal for today dimitri marcantonio souza president of the class of two thousand and twelve we gathered here this afternoon to acknowledge that the young men and women assembled here before us have mastered the knowledge and skills that we as a community have determined are necessary to prepare them for the future the high school diploma which they will receive today is a representation of this mastery it's therefore first necessary that i recognize the tireless efforts of the faculty and staff of all of the public schools in guiding our students to meet the standards for graduation there are scores of individuals in our school system who have contributed to producing the successful young adults today we have a group of our faculty here to preside over the ceremony and i'd like to personally thank you for your dedication in preparing all the students in front of us for this it's become a tradition in over the last five years that i meet with the incoming ninth grade class on the last day is eighth graders at the cherry middle school's promotional ceremony you guys remember th i told them that day that we here at home on high school would offer them one of the best high school educations available in the united states of america i also gave them some homework remember that part i challenge think over the summer how they would take advantage of the offerings of belmont high school and i'm here today to attest to the fact that these students took me up on that challenge we used to model the belmont public schools learn think create and serve as an expression to embody the long list of knowledge and skills required for graduation the young men and women here assembled here before us certainly embody the meaning of these words and have distinguished themselves in extraordinary wa will be impossible for me to do real justice to the incredible diversity of talents that can be found within this group of individuals please allow me a few minutes to give you a brief overview of their accomplishments using the model learned think create and serve as a gu learning and thinking of the cornerstones of our educational institutions all the students of class of two thousand and eleven have demonstrated that they are effective communicators researchers critical thinkers and problem solvers through the completion of a myriad of assessments here's a sample of the distinctions that the students have earned in the classrooms twenty seven of the students achieve perfect eight hundred scores on the s a t one and two tests five students qualified as national merit scholars representing the top four percent of all students in the nation on the p s a t test for students achieve the distinction of national merit scholar finalists and were awarded scholarships from colleges participating in the national merit program and one two thousand and eleven graduate was named the national merit scholar one of only two thousand five hundred such students in the united states to achieve this honor individual members of this class also received honors for their achievements in the mathematics olympiad for their expertise in the sciences by the society of women engineers and the international biology olympiad in for their understanding of the principles of economics and the national economics challenge and the harvard economics challenge and finally there are words of last tuesday seventy two individual members of the class of two thousand and eleven were awarded nearly sixty thousand dollars in the second word in the public schools motto is create them on high school students show their ability to create in various ways some through their ability to make music either with an instrument or their voice other create others create works of art through  clay camera computer keyboard some show their creative ability through their portrayals of characters on the stage and others are able to create with their use of their physical actors abilities on the playing fields among the many honors achieve members of the class of two thousand and eleven our music and music are three performing groups will recognize this year with gold medals by the massachusetts instrumental and choral conductors association and another group receive the gold medal from the international association of jazz education  students were individually recognized by the massachusetts music educators association at their all state festival to highlight some of the classes honors in the visual arts thirteen students were awarded keizer honorable mentions at the boston globe scholastic our competition  energy students received honorable mentions for their acting abilities at the two thousand and ten emerson college high school drama festival athletics among the students in front of us are members of the m i a division two north champions and middlesex league champions in women's soccer and members of the massachusetts youth rugby organizations division two state champion individually one member of the class of two thousand and two thousand and eleven has been recognized as an all american in the sport of rugby another member of the class was named the boston globe and a boston herald all scholastic a third has signed a letter of intent to receive a division one athletic scholarship and to other students received all state recognition in rugby and women's lacrosse the fourth word in the belmont public schools motto is serve our commitment to developing young adults who are committed to using their abilities and talents to improve the community is one of the things that make the belmont public schools truly a special organization in order to receive a diploma from damane school all students mix must complete forty hours of community service of the course of their four years here these hours are served in local nursing homes and soup kitchens coaching you sports working the having habitat and in countless other ways no matter what the assignment what our students learn through these efforts is the value of serving the public good and the responsibility they have to improving the world again as in other areas the class of two thousand and eleven has exceeded all expectations in the area of community service the two hundred eighty members of this class completed over eight thousand hours of service this year thirty members of this class were recognized with presidential service awards signifying a minimum of one hundred hours of civil service completed in the past twelve months two of the students have achieved a presidential service award in all four years of their high school experience of time on high school congratulations to the class of two thousand and eleven through your passion for learning and your drive to excel you have compiled this impressive list of accomplishments over your four years upon high school more importantly you have proven yourself to be true leaders in every sense of the word you face the actual responsibilities that have come through hosting four hundred of your younger brothers and sisters in the well acting school for the past year and a half instead of whining complaining about losing your parking spaces classrooms and even to your sacred senior table in the cafeteria well maybe have complained about that when a little bit you adapted to all these changes with a great sense of spirit and served as a wonderful example to our young gas i've been told many times by the wellingto faculty how great it's been for their students to see you in action every day i want to let you know how much i appreciate your willingness to be such gracious host thank as a class and individually you've shown yourselves to be more than worthy of the title belmont high school graduate and you've made us all proud of you thank you good afternoon friends family teachers and students about one high school it is strange to think that four years ago the idea of graduation in college seemed so distant but now that we reach this point the feeling is almost bittersweet it nearly impossible for a person like me to even comprehend or articulate what lies in all of your futures for if you told me six years ago that i would be standing here before you nervously twiddling my thumbs and desperately trying to dribble out the speech i would have been on the first plane back to flustered as i look standing on the podium right now out of i would like to recount a chapter in my life that not only to find myself as a student here at p h s but also define for me acceptance something i thought i would never have the chance to taste having moved from china to the united states at the age of fifteen then having three more moves throughout massachusetts childhood friends were inconceivably temporary i never had the chance to feel what it was like to grow up with a friend as a young developing child ignorant of the real world i was constantly taken out of a million surroundings and thrust into new environments where i had to once again rebuild my own social standing in the summer of two thousand six hundred was time for us to settle upon a more permanent home and when i moved to the small town of belmont it is needless to say that i dreaded that first day when all eyes fell upon me as i awkwardly stumbled over the threshold stone of the chantry middle school as a new student a man already  network of blossoming friendships i naturally felt like the summer junebug clinging to a screen door appearing and smelling the sweet scent of social thrive yet barred from it at that time the idea that you ever finding a way in was next to impossible so i gave up trying for three years i foolishly clung to that screen and watch as friendships continue to grow on floors and i was still that insect hoping that one day someone will poke a hole through that screen door woven by my fears of rejection alienation sometimes later in after many friends made i'm here as i look around this gym i can't help but feel the honor and gratification that not only did a person poke a hole through that screen but everyone in this room has graciously open the door for me thank you lou i now like to ask dr it was still to come to the podium for the presentation of the first of our two school committee awards graduates of the class of two thousand and eleven parents grandparents friends relatives faculty members of the school committee and other special guests i am very pleased to present the first of two school committee awards for outstanding achievement in scholarship this award is presented to the senior who is an outstanding student with a diligent and dependable and optimistic approach to her learning is a member of the national honor society is a remarkable young woman in our community who has volunteered countless hours to the foundation for bellman education and incredibly thoughtful and caring young woman who gets actively involved she loves to knit read and dance her love of creating things has triggered her leadership in oregon organizing the belmont high school fiber arts club she's participated in a six week paid internship through the broad institute researching doing some great research she she was able to see hard work pay off and help a larger scientific project at the end of her experience she made a presentation to the broad institute community she's a highly talented musician she's been playing the piano since second grade and the flute sense great for she participated in the six hundred mile bike ride in nova scotia she will be attending amherst college in the fall the recipient of this award is karen smith and dr harvey members of the school committee faculty family friends and last but not least the class of two thousand and eleven the past four years of high school are over but high school has been so much more than four years of classes it's been a continuation of growing up together figuring out who we are and finding how we fit into the community a few months ago one of my friends found her diary from elementary school that recounted our adventures over those five years after driving home from school in the fall we parked in front of my house and laughed at the passages about going to each other's  houses for the first time our parents chaperoning field trips to plymouth plantation and trying and failing to break our ankles to get out a field day many of us have grown up together since kindergarten we've gone from dressing up for medieval festivals to watching dinnertime plays like dorothy in the starfish of oz at fairy be to those half day trips to harvard square where what felt like our entire grade crammed on the first bus regardless of hot or humid it was inside no matter how strong the friendships we make in college are we're not going to grow up with any other friends the way we have these past twelve years to know someone as long as we've known friends from kindergarten he'll have to be thirty which at least for us seems far away in another four years we'll be graduating again and high school will be able or that our years in belmont have been essential for our development we have explored who we are tending to be a knight or princesses in kindergarten to discovering our passions and creating our own identities and not only have we grown we've also watched our peers grow and even influence the direction of their lives next year my friends from the elementary school diary are going to be spread over the country between the south the midwest and new england but although we may never take a class together again we are all connected by the influence we've had on each other john locke described people  chameleons who change their colors based on those around them i believe that the people around us have contributed to who we are today and not just in a parent's are in a superficial way our colors what we value and what we believe in have all been shaped by our interactions with each other and so no matter how far we travel or how much time passes we can never really lose one another thank you so much and congratulations the second school committee award for achievement in scholarship is presented to the senior who completed a competitive senior year curriculum with three a p and three honors courses achieved the distinction of a piece scholar by achieving perfect scores of five and five a p exams scored perfect five on the a p ball biology exam without actually taking the course that's pretty good has volunteered as a math tutor at the b eight b h s to assist her classmates has been captain of the belmont dolphin swim team is a vice city letter winner at b h s and girl swimming has her numerous six presidential awards for community service since middle school has been involved with a performing arts club and the environmental club is a proud member of the national honor society enjoys playing the cello she will be attending the university of chicago in the fall the recipient of this award is amy  whichever path each individual takes you are ready and he prepared we have all changed in our time in the belmont school system whether we started in the elementary schools in my halls and understand the rather counter intuitive schedule even in high school we learned we've had to change perspectives as freshmen would we have suspected the cities even the unexpected tornadoes that this week we have viewed how the economy crashed and the job market change in this year alone we saw the uprisings in the middle east  society and the world around us have changed we have to have change our expectations therefore as we step forward into next endeavor which will be a change and we face challenges us we know we can do that yes in five years that reunion we will all be different people but just as we have changed in our time here we also recognize each other as the graduating class of two thousand and eleven we are children of the ninety's and a song from disney's pocahontas to me summarizes our lives especially at the close of high school now it is our turn to look just around the river band diplomas miss graham members of the school committee i hereby certify that the students assembled here today have completed the requirements to earn a belmont high school diploma at this time i'd like to ask belmont school committee chair ms laurie graham and school committee secretary ms rebecca voce to come to the podium to present the diplomas matthew brown alexander campbell jessica ran away mackenzie jefferson benjamin kennedy dimitry limits joy mccracken james mclaughlin gabriel most christopher pollution daniel sha simone steinberg ladies gentlemen is my great honor to present to you the graduates of belmont high school class of two thousand i also need to thank mr rich preston who's been in the garage over there making this making sure this sound system works thank you very much  cohen assistant principal for her work in organizing today ceremonies and graduates not seniors anymore graduate i just want to say that i've been honored to have been able to work with the over the last four years commencement really means literally means a beginning and as you begin the next phase of your life i wish you all the success happiness and good fortune that you can have congratulations alexander y ladies gentlemen is my great honor to present to you the graduates of belmont high school class of two thousand also thanks to miss carroll cohen assistant principal for her work in organizing today ceremonies and graduates not seniors anymore graduate i just want to say that i've been honored to have been able to work with you over the last four years commencement really means literally means a beginning and as you begin the next phase of your life i wish you