Time has marched on for the East Lyme High graduating class of 2008, as it does for everyone. The graduating class of 312 students, from East Lyme and Salem, was unique in the challenges, opportunities and milestones it faced, individually and collectively.
At graduation ceremonies on Friday, June 20, the students and school community bid farewell to Principal Larry Roberts, who is retiring this year after five years as principal. They also remembered one of their own classmates, Taylor Emery, who died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma before his senior year.
The school valedictorian, Hannah Boettcher, and salutatorian, Kimberly Betts, gave the first combined speech in school history, recounting advice they had received from East Lyme High teachers. The class laureate Lauren Walsh spoke of the unusual unity and love in the class. Class president Ben Fontneau, who admitted his craze for Star Trek, talked about how his class, a group of very different individuals, came together for the greater good.
Each year, school administrators like to complement and brag about their graduating classes. But in this year’s case, East Lyme Public Schools Superintendent Paul Smotas told the graduating class that he realized he had a special group with this class.
When Smotas arrived at the district eight years ago, he said his first task was to interpret the results of the most recent Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs.) As fourth graders, the East Lyme had been tops in the state.
“As the years progressed, you continued to excel academically, socially, on the fields of athletics, in the arts, and in the community,” Smotas told the graduates, noting that the group and its accomplishments also reflected new classmates moving into the community, others moving out, and students from Salem School.
School records back up the talk.
“This class had the highest CMT and CAPT scores in the history of East Lyme High,” said Marcia Goldreich, guidance counselor. “It was a talented and genuinely nice group of kids.”
Of the 312 graduates, 86.2 percent will go to 2 or 4 year colleges, she said. The Viking Saga, the school’s student-produced paper reported that 66 of them plan to attend Connecticut schools, including 35 to UConn. Two students will continue their education out of the US, one in the UK and one in Scotland.
Another 1.3 percent are joining are joining the military, 3.2 percent are pursuing vocational training and 7.4 percent will be employed, Goldreich said.
The East Lyme Scholarship Association gave out $113,600 to 54 deserving students. Goldreich noted that this included eight $5,000 scholarships from the Christopher Phelan Scholarship Fund, named after one of the school teachers, and three $5,000 scholarships awarded by the Taylor Emery Scholarship, which were awarded to three students who emulated Taylor Emery’s LIVESTRONG attitude and character also facing serious illness.
Keeping with a tradition started the previous year, Smotas recognized 31 students who were on the cusp of being ranked number one or two in the graduating class: Hannah Boettcher, Kimberly Betts, Erin Boettcher, Kristin Summers, Lisa Wang, Nishani Hewage, George Kang, Katherine O’Toole, Stefanie Felitto, Patrick Manning, Sourav Bhowmick, Leslie Kirschblum, Alexander Vargo, Nicole Boike, Michael Purdy, Katie Bosse, Richard Connell, Mirella Cole, Mollie Teeter, Andrew Hill, Elizabeth Salesky, Jeffrey Foster, Benjamin Fontneau, Katherine Eberle, Alyssa Skiba, Christopher Worgul, Robyn Engel, Rosanna Fulchiero, Joseph Rotchford, Alyssa Kinell, Alexandra Ulkus.
(The full listing of East Lyme High Graduating Class of 2008 appears in the print edition of the July 3 Lyme Times.)