Pembroke Academy didn’t have an environmental club when Emma Settles was a freshman, so the next year, she helped create one.
From organizing school trash pickups and trail cleanups at Bear Brook State Park to collecting 1,000 pounds of plastic bags over two years, Settles relished every opportunity to get her high school peers involved.
“Our health is reflected through the environment’s health as well. And I just want to educate people about that,” she said.
When she started high school four years ago, she had little idea what she wanted to do afterward. Now, as she tossed her forest green cap into the air at Delta Dental Stadium on Wednesday night alongside 161 other graduates, Settles had a clear vision of her future — one that she credits her school for helping crystallize.
An honors biology class and many conversations with her Spanish teacher, Christine Ferguson, expanded Settles’s horizons.
“Just seeing what the world needs and how we can be the change that we wish to see is really cool,” said Settles, who transformed her love of the outdoors into concrete plans to become a conservation officer. In the fall, she’ll begin studying human ecology at The College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Settles credits Ferguson for believing in her dreams.
“She really motivated me to go into activism within the environment and then also pushing other students to reach their potential,” said Settles, who also served as the president of the Spanish Honors Society and a co-captain of the girls’ tennis team.
Her classmates, too, hit their strides in different ways over the past few years.
Dominic Davis found camaraderie in those around him, be it through the soccer team or his classes.
“I’m going to miss the community part,” he said. “It feels like a big family almost, especially with sports. It feels like every time I step on the field, I’m just playing with my brothers.”
He plans to study business and explore digital marketing, first at NHTI then at the University of New Hampshire.
“The most meaningful part of high school for me has just been making a ton of friends and basing everything I do off of the people I met in high school,” he added.
For Elliot Kroll, who, like Davis, lives in Epsom, high school brought the lesson that “if you want something, you got to go for it.”
Kroll long dreamed of being an EMT but did not get into the program at Concord Regional Technical Center the first time around. He applied again and enrolled as a senior, taking a supplemental class outside of school and putting in many late nights.
Graduating Wednesday evening as an EMT candidate, Kroll eagerly looked to the future, embracing the unknown while remaining confident in his ability to make his dreams a reality.
“I learned that if you really want something, you can’t wait for it and wait for the perfect time,” Kroll said. “Because you know, people are always like, ‘Oh it’s not the right time to do this. I don’t think this is a good time.’ Life is short.”
Valedictorian Kevin Benard offered some words of wisdom to his peers on Wednesday evening, recounting an experience from their senior trip to Fairlee, Vermont.
He stumbled upon a wooded castle tower with a message inscribed at the top: “Nothing is more tragic than not living your life because you’re afraid of failure, or dying.”
Benard spent the past year mulling over these words, parsing apart their meaning.
“Sometimes we aren’t afraid of failure but, rather, we’re afraid of becoming ourselves. We spend so much of our lives measuring ourselves against standards that we never created,” he told the crowd of graduates, teachers, relatives and friends. “We worry about what college we’ll get into, what jobs we’ll have, how much money we’ll make, whether everyone around us thinks we’re successful. We spend so much time trying to live up to expectations, we forget to ask whether those expectations were ever ours to begin with.”
He recounted how his father, Matthew Benard, a decades-long teacher at Pembroke Academy, set an impeccable example of how to be a man in this world. Benard learned, however, that he didn’t need to become his dad. He just needed to be himself — with his dad as a role model.
“Nothing is more tragic than not living your life because you’re afraid of dying,” he said. “And nothing is more tragic than reaching the end of your life only to realize you spent it trying to be somebody else.”
As his son spoke, Matthew Benard sat on the field among the other faculty members, beaming with pride.
Those around him, too, have seen the graduates blossom over the past four years.
“Who they were when they were little freshman, how much growth they’ve had and persevered through a lot of hardships and challenges, that’s why I like coming,” said outreach counselor Amber Zmuda. “Some of them, walking across the stage is just incredible. I’m so proud of them.”
School Counselor Barbara Michaud has every confidence in the students’ ability to succeed.
“Hard work and determination, and you find your place in community,” she said.
Settles, for one, is well on her way. She plans to hike 50 miles of the Appalachian Trail at the end of the summer for an orientation trip before diving into her studies.
As the ceremony progressed, she sat among her classmates, their green gowns matching the stadium seats. For her, the moment represented a culmination of all her learning.
Beyond that, high school provided her the opportunity to lean on others, including teachers and friends.
“I’m a very independent person, so I think the hardest or the most difficult thing was, I don’t know, going out of my comfort zone and asking for help,” she said.
As she enters the next chapter, her dedication to the natural world grows more steadfast than ever.
“Try to figure out something that you love and you can actually go to work every day not necessarily with a smile on your face but with a go-get-it attitude, because you’re going to be doing that for a long time and it’s important that you enjoy what you do,” she said.
