ADAMS, Mass. — Jonathan Igoe is a relatively new member of the Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School community.

 

But the interim executive director learned a pretty valuable lesson about the 28 members of the class of 2024 who gathered in school's gym for Saturday morning's graduation.

 

Recently, he heard a story about 14 of those seniors on the class field trip to Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut.

 

"They went out to lunch together, a group among this larger group," Igoe said at Saturday's ceremony. "And the owner of the restaurant was so impressed with this group of students that she asked to take a photo and put it on her Instagram account.

 

"She told them that they were the most polite and best behaved group of students that she had ever encountered."

 

True to that reputation for good manners, gratitude was a major theme of Saturday's graduation exercises.

 

In addition to the annual "Moment of Appreciation" school tradition when graduates each give a flower to a faculty member who impacted their life in a significant way, two seniors made appreciation for their parents a major theme of their remarks.

 

Marissa Ostrowski and M. Madeline Schrade shared the podium to give one of the event's "Senior Reflections."

 

"For the people who treated us as family, even though they didn't have to, we are here to celebrate you, just as much as we're celebrating ourselves," the pair read, taking turns with parts of their prepared remarks

 

"Thank you for watching us take our first steps and say our first words. Thank you for making us pose for the first-day-of-school photos we look back on with red faces. Thank you for packing our lunches and sneaking those notes into our lunch boxes, even though we were too embarrassed to show our friends.

 

"Thank you for nagging us on late and missing assignments that we didn't want to do, but that inevitably brought our grades back up. Thank you for tiptoeing around the shoes and the children sleeping over at your house.

 

"Thank you for staying up late and listening to us gossip about all the latest drama and, maybe, if you're lucky, something we actually learned in class. … Thank you for supporting us, even if you joined our journey later on in life."

 

In introducing the Moment of Appreciation, always an emotional highlight of graduation day at the school, Isaiah Oduro talked about the teachers who helped guide the soon-to-be-graduates and encouraged those graduates to hold onto their memories of the school and continue to make new ones.

 

"Some might say time has been going on forever," Oduro said. "Others might say time is just a concept or time is a whole new dimension. But what I know is that time was nothing until we created it.

 

"Although the seconds will still pass and the birthdays will still come, the time spent on this Earth will mean nothing if not filled with memories. So I urge you, class of 2024, to go take those pictures, to go get those hugs and smile when you are congratulated. Because high school graduation is an experience that you will have only once, and you will regret not cherishing it."

 

Teacher and coach Richard LaRocque delivered Saturday's commencement address, and he, too, talked about cherishing memories — and not just on big occasions like Saturday.

 

"I have been so lucky to spend so much time in nature with this class," said LaRocque, who started as a full-time teacher at the school when this year's seniors were in sixth grade. "From days like Mountain Day to field trips to places like the Robert Frost House or the cemetery in Bennington, where we discovered and picked mushrooms together. Remember that every day brings an opportunity to appreciate something incredible in our world.

 

"And taking a moment to enjoy the beauty of our world is one of the most powerful stress relievers that we have at our disposal."

 

LaRocque offered the tip to "enjoy the beauty of our world" as one of several bits of advice for the graduates around which he framed his address.

 

Another theme in his remarks: the similarity between house plants and teenagers, who both thrive with proper care and love.

 

"Few things are as gratifying as watching plants thrive under your care, only to eventually bloom and look beautiful, oftentimes in unexpected ways," LaRocque said. "Today, I stand before you all, at the height of your academic lives to this point, and I'm looking at your happy faces, your beautifully decorated mortarboards, and I feel as though I'm visiting a botanical garden, where dozens of unique plant species have been carefully tended to and are now teeming with flowers and foliage."

 

But LaRocque reminded the grads that metaphors only go so far, and that they, the Class of '24, differed from potted plants in a significant way.

 

"I want to remind you that you are not plants," he said. "You are, in fact, people.

 

"Human beings can only grow as people once they step outside of their comfort zone. … In the past few years, I've watched you all step outside your proverbial comfort zones and experience growth in almost every conceivable area. Do not stop putting yourselves in these scenarios. Do the difficult thing, and get out of your comfort zone from time to time. Because you will experience more growth than you ever believed possible."

 

Berkshire Arts and Technology Charter Public School graduates for 2024