"When you are feeling stuck or down don't give up," Yetzaira Ferre told her fellow graduates.
Chicopee AcademyCHICOPEE – Call them the Magnificent Seven.
Wearing black or white caps and gowns, nearly all the seven seniors at Thursday’s Chicopee Academy graduation talked about how they never expected to walk across the stage and be handed high school diplomas.
Graduate Yetzaira Ferre said she had been in a gang, skipped school frequently and was brought into court on a Child In Need of Services petition and was put on probation.
The birth of her son changed her, she said. “I wanted to be a successful mom that he would be proud of,” she said.
But even after she entered Chicopee Academy she struggled, partly because her reading ability was so low she would have a hard time understanding the text books.
“I was too scared to ask for help,” she said.
Finally, with the prodding of a teacher, she talked to the school counselor and was placed in a program that helped her improve her reading and pass the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems. She has been accepted in the culinary arts program at Holyoke Community College.
“When you are feeling stuck or down don’t give up,” she told her fellow graduates.
The class was smaller than typical, but Principal Jon G. Leonard told them they were an exceptional group.
“You set a tone. You are leaders,” he said.
Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette was the one who called the group the “Magnificent Seven.”
“Don’t stop achieving,” he said. “It wasn’t a straight path, but it rarely is.”
The guest speaker was 2009 Academy graduate Joseph Salloum, who talked about how he had turned around his life starting at Chicopee Academy.
By his junior year he had not managed to earn one class credit and transferred to Chicopee Academy, buckled down and managed to earn the credits he needed fairly quickly. He now is a crew chief for Asplundh Tree Service.
“I love what I do and I’m pretty damn good at it,” he said.
The other six graduates are Ceasia F. Briggs, Javier O. Cappas, Jenna H. Cortez, Chantilli Cruz, Steven M. Lopez and Raul A. Ramos Jr. Five of the graduates are planning to head to community college in the fall.