An eager group moves on

Photo by Concord Monitor and Lori Duff

Hopkinton High School graduates line up before the ceremony at the fairgrounds in Hopkinton.

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Jonathan Orsi, 18, has an unusual goal for someone who just got out of high school: He'd like to go back.

"I used to think high school was like a youth prison," said Orsi who graduated from Hopkinton High School last night. "Then I found stuff I started to enjoy."

(For a special page of graduation coverage -- and to add your own graduation pictures to it -- go to http://www.cmonitor.com/hop2006.)

Orsi, who is heading to Montana State University next year, hopes to become a high school English teacher, so he can challenge kids with the authors he likes (Ken Kesey) and talk to a group of people who'll listen.

"I'm an opinionated person and I feel adults are closed minded to listen to new ideas and kids are most impressionable at a high school age," he said.

About 80 students (plus three exchange students) graduated from Hopkinton last night, celebrating what was for many 12 years in the same school system. Eight-four percent of the students are going on to two- and four-year colleges, Principal Steven Chamberlain said.

The class was celebrated for its eagerness and enthusiasm and cohesiveness as a group.

Salutatorian Luke Simon advised his classmates to "go big or go home," telling them that "life's experiences are what you make of them."

"If you're too afraid to laugh at things, or you're too afraid to go for the gusto, then you may miss out on some memorable experiences," he said.

Valedictorian Elizabeth Rexford told her class it was impossible to look back and gauge just how much they had learned over the course of high school, but said that some of it had "been digested and added to our general view of life."

"I think much of what we've learned here has seeped into our minds rather quietly over the years," she said. "When it resurfaces we may be surprised or unsure about where it came from."

For Mike DiFronzo, an 18-year-old headed to Castleton State College in Vermont, some of the most interesting lessons came from joining the school board as the student representative.

"It definitely taught me a lot about the undercurrents of the school, things you don't see and the decisions that need to be made," he said. I was surprised, "how willing they were to hear what I had to say and how much they took it to heart."

DiFronzo also had his own experiences with trend-setting, reviving the Mohawk, and produced a senior play about homelessness.

He plans to student psychology in college because he's liked the psychology courses he's taken at Hopkinton and believes he has a knack for it.

"I feel like I have a pretty good feel for what people are thinking," he said.