The valedictorian was Donald Hedge and the salutatorian was Stephen Faivre.
Comprehensive High SchoolCHICOPEE – Standing on the Comprehensive High School football field, graduation speakers recalled that they started high school in a completely different building.
At the Comprehensive High School graduation Friday, students talked about how they began their freshman year in the old, crumbling school and moved in the middle of that year to a new building.
The old school was eventually razed and the football field was built in its place.
“This is the building we have come to love at Chicopee Comp,” Valedictorian Donald C. Hedge told his classmates.
With a 100 grade point average, Hedge led the class of 257 as its graduation speaker. He plans to study chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the fall.
He told students to never stop questioning and to thank their parents and teachers.
Salutatorian Stephen R. Faivre talked about how to be successful, explaining that people often asked him how to earn high grades.
“You have to set a goal and if you are determined to get there, you eventually will be successful,” he said.
Faivre, who will study chemical engineering at Western New England College, told students about his spectacularly bad performance when he first ran track.
But over the season, he trained hard and ran over the weekends when it was not required. Over time, he did improve and made it to the Western Massachusetts finals.
Principal Derek J. Morrison, with Superintendent Richard W. Rege Jr. and Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette, the chairman of the School Committee, gave students a variety of advice.
Morrison told the class they showed him they have learned perseverance, tolerance, citizenship and pride.
“Now you, too, will venture out in the world and stake your claim on life. Use your education,” he said.