Local News from Marbletown, Rochester, & Rosendale
On June 26, Rondout Valley High School celebrated its 70th commencement ceremony, graduating 144 students on a beautiful balmy June day on the school’s athletic field.
Speeches by both students and staff highlighted connection over performance in a world desperately eager for their attention.
Jessica Torok, Rondout High School principal, said, “The most valuable thing in the world right now is attention, not money, not influence, not followers. Whatever gets your attention eventually gets your life. And everyone wants it, every app, every notification… If you are not careful, you can start giving your attention to things that don’t deserve your attention or energy and time. The world will want you to stay visible, but visibility and success are not the same thing.”
She said that she’s seen, over the years, that the people who have the greatest impact are often not the ones people expected to succeed.
She shared her experience of not performing well on standardized tests, beginning in third grade and continuing to struggle on the SAT. She relayed that she was waitlisted for SUNY Oneonta and that her guidance counselor believed in her before she believed in herself, calling the school weekly from November through April and advocating for her before she eventually got in. College also didn’t come easy, she said. She worked harder and longer than her peers, but in the end, she graduated third in her class out of her entire math department, which the audience responded to with applause.
“There’s something different about underdogs. We hustle different, we love different and we lead different… When nobody hands you certainty, you learn to build it yourself.”
She congratulated the class for showing up for each other, not perfectly but consistently. When she thinks about this class, she thinks about seeing them in the hallways, “the laughter, the inside jokes, the moments that will never appear on a transcript.”
She continued to tell the graduates to “pay attention to your life while you are living it,” and not to always be looking forward. Saying often when something is about to happen for the last time, most often isn’t a warning or an announcement. It just happens. “The last practice, that last lunch in the Gander Garden, the last bus ride… the last time this entire graduating class will be together in one place… you don’t realize it is the last time until it has already become a memory.”
“Standing here tonight, I find myself thinking about that because this is the last time for me too. Sometimes moments are sad, but that’s just the way life goes. Chapters end, people grow, new stories begin. That’s the beautiful thing about endings because there’s always beginnings. And what I realize is that when a chapter closes, you don’t remember the statistics. You remember the people. You remember the community. The way people here continue to show up and care deeply about one another…”
Hudson Paley, the valedictorian of the class of 2026, also spoke about his connections with classmates and teachers. He highlighted teachers Mr. [Travis] Buley and Ms. [Patricia] Abi-Hassan for their optimism and support, and Ms. [Robin] McDonough for putting up with his friends during lunch.
He said he was opting out of making his speech about the cell phone ban that affected them all and brought back games like hacky sack and cards. Instead, he focused on the people in his class, the connections they had made since elementary school and into the awkward preteen years, and how nobody else would know them like they know each other. He urged his class “to make connections wherever they go,” quoting Aristotle, who said that humans are by nature social animals. “No matter where we go, all of us will be a Gander for the rest of our lives, fly high,” he said.
Harris Kyaw, the salutatorian, spoke and urged his fellow graduates to learn from their mistakes, urging them to make them, because mistakes are “proof of effort and growth” and that “failure and mistakes are normal… mistakes are not the enemy. A life avoiding mistakes is a life avoiding experiences. The challenge isn’t overcoming failure. It’s overcoming the fear of stepping into the unknown.”
Zi Qing Liu, Rondout’s 2026 class president, also highlighted belief, trust and connection. She urged her classmates to find what they love and do great work. She turned to her parents and grandparents and thanked them in her family’s language, noting how important they were to her success.
Dr. Paul Spadaro, superintendent of schools, and Carolyn Peck of the board of education also addressed the students. Spadaro told his graduates, “Now is the time to transform the world… dream boldly, work hard and never stop believing in yourself.”
Peck reminded students that home is often where your stories begin. “This Gander nest is where so many chapters were written. Now it is time to spread your wings. Remember, wherever life brings you, this nest will always be here for you. You’ll always have a home at Rondout Valley.”
