HANOVER — Family.
That was the feeling running through the Thursday, June 5 South Shore Tech commencement ceremony, as speaker after speaker noted the support they’ve always enjoyed from family at home, and the new “family” of teachers, mentors and friends they’ve found in deciding to attend vocational school – a decision often viewed as “risky” by those who’ve never walked in their work boots.
Today, we honor all of the hard work and dedication it took for our class to walk across this stage. But that hard work didn’t come only from us — it also came from everyone else in the audience not wearing a cap and gown this evening,” said Salutatorian Reese Hughes. “Their support allowed us to get here. So before I begin, some words of appreciation— and at some point today I hope you do the same.
“We’ve grown comfortable not just with each other, but in who we are together,” Student Body President Jeremy Leonard said to his classmates before addressing their parents in closing. “We’re all products of our surroundings, and it’s clear that the one you built for us was something truly special.”
Some represented their own family’s legacy of attending a vocational school – and SST in particular – as Sienna Molla does. Her late granduncle Robert Molla, a graduate of Weymouth Vocational and served as a member of the SST School Committee from 1979 to shortly before his death in 2023. Molla was a proud spokesman on the benefits of vocational education.
His grandniece no doubt found inspiration there as much as she took valuable life lessons from learning the violin:
“In school, we often treat success like a single note: Get the grade. Pass the test. Win the award,” she said. “ But life—like a violin—isn’t one perfect note. It’s a whole symphony of moving parts. Your health, your relationships, your timing, your sleep, your passions—even the small things you don’t think matter—they do. They shape the sound of your life.”
Still others walked in as freshmen thinking they had their future planned out, only to follow that detour to their real calling, again supported in their choice by those intertwined family units.
“Being a vocational student has changed what I wanted to do with my life. When I was little, I wanted to be a nurse. I saw how cool nurses were and decided that one day I would be one. Like how little kids change their minds every five minutes, I decided that I would be a pediatrician, and then a pediatric nurse,” said Vocational Student of the Year speaker Maya Crawford.
“When I got into the Allied Health program, I decided that becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant was a wonderful stepping stone to achieve that goal. After getting my CNA license, I was faced with a choice. Either work in a nursing home, stay at school for extra learning, or work in an early education facility — and I chose the latter. Working at Primrose School of Rockland through cooperative education has made me change my career choice once again, to be a child behavioral therapist.”
This was a class with major accomplishments of their own of which they are no doubt proud – as school Principal Sandra Baldner certainly is.
- Students in the SST Class of 2025:
- Qualified for, and competed in the SkillsUSA national competition four times;
- Earned 13 individual and 14 team spots at the FFA nationals;
- Won six Mayflower League championships for SST teams;
• Graduates have been accepted at dozens of prestigious colleges and universities and - Earned more than $1,104,000 in co-op salaries while at SST.
“You made us feel happy when you joined clubs and athletics than we’ve seen in years – possibly ever,” Baldner said. “Y’all are joiners, and we love it. It will be different next year but keep participating. Choose opportunities in your workplace, at your college or university or community – just stay involved and make connections.”
The Class of 2025 has been inclusive.
“You made us feel human, “Baldner said. “The Class of 2025 interacted with us not always as teacher-student or coach-athlete. Sometimes we just talked … In fact, we talked a lot – some of you never stopped talking, in fact, you’re probably still talking now. Some of you made appointments to talk, some of you got hall passes to walk and talk. Some of you – and it was often – it was human to human. Labels did not apply.”
They also came out of the COVID lockdown that hit while they were in seventh-grade and had to navigate a whole new way of doing shop exploratories in a world of social distancing, hand-sanitizer, vaccines and masks. They aced that, too.
“At first, we were excited — school being canceled sounded great,” Leonard recalled.. “ ‘Yay — two weeks off!’ we said. But those two weeks turned into more than three years before things finally felt normal again. Freshman year brought its own chaos — the confusion of exploratory, picking our first shop, and getting lost in the maze that was South Shore Tech. Sophomore and Junior year became a time of real growth. I watched as the loud, restless kids we once were, began to mature into young adults with drive and passion for their trades. We found our people — friends who, hopefully, stay with us for life. And then came Senior year, where everything started to feel real. We realized that our childhoods were coming to an end, and adulthood was waiting for us just around the corner.”
Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey noted how his niece’s graduation from Blackstone Valley Vocational recently gave him renewed appreciation for being a family member at graduation, He’d been there before, as his two sons graduated from Whitman-Hanson Regional High School.
“We’re here to celebrate our students for their personal, academic and technical accomplishments,” he said. “To rhose folks siting on the other side of the rope [line], the parents, the caregivers and extended family members who are part of the success of our graduates, thank you for being such great partners over the past four years.”
As the proud uncle of a vocational-technical school graduate, Hickey said this year, more than ever, I fee the emotions on this side of the podium as superintendent, and on that side of the podium on the other side of the ropes makes me reflect on this moment.”
Whie coaches and staff have spent a of time with the Class of 2025 over the past four years, “family members know a more complete story of our graduates.”
It reminds me that there’s more to the story,” Hickey said. “There’s a touching and powerful story for each of our graduates. Stories are so important – we tell them and learn from them in many different ways. … Stories come in all forms. They tell the world who we are, what we value, where we come from and where we hope to go next.”
This promises to be a class that will have fascinating stories to tell – to the friends and family of today – and the families ahead of them.