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The roar of the crowd was deafening as Dreyfoos’ seniors walked across the stage into the next chapter of their life. On May 14 at the South Florida Fairgrounds, the class of 2015 took the stage for the last time in front of the Dreyfoos community.
To the background of musical performances by Dreyfoos’ own orchestra and choir, the graduation of the class of 2015 was like no other. A class that has suffered extraordinary loss and has shown extraordinary spirit made sure to create a graduation to remember. The valedictorian, piano senior Jackie Chen, and salutatorian, communications senior Ximena Hasbach, decided to give a joint speech together after being friends since the fourth grade.
“For the first time in over ten years, we have two girls standing up here as [valedictorian] and [salutatorian],” Hasbach said in her joint speech with Chen. “For Jackie and I, it was important to show that you can excel in math, science and engineering while wearing a frilly pink dress and lipstick to match.”
“I’d like to emphasize how extraordinary the class of 2015 is, in every sense of the word,” Chen said. “We wanted to honor them by doing something a little different for graduation this year and hopefully we’ve succeeded in that.”
The class of 2015 has proven to be outstanding, boasting two National Merit Finalists, a Presidential Scholar and a participant to the US Senate Youth Program. Members of the senior class will be attending prestigious universities next year including Yale University, Stanford University, The Juilliard School and the University of Pennsylvania.
“Challenge the world on how we define success,” principal Dr. Susan Atherley said, “because the world desperately needs it. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
As the last of the class of 2015 walked across the stage that Friday morning, they relished on their past years at Dreyfoos. An education in the arts and academics has proven to be successful for many of them. Hopefully, for all of them, this will not be the last time we see them on stage.
