Fox Lane graduates celebrate with messages of resilience

Fox Lane graduate Morgan Ayo addresses her fellow students at the June 24 graduation ceremony.

Fox Lane Valedictorian Gabe Wierzchowski. Jim MacLean Photos

Read The Recorder's special graduation section.

By MARTIN WILBUR

The Fox Lane High School Class of 2025 came together for the last time on Tuesday evening, as they gathered on the campus athletic field for the school’s annual commencement ceremonies.

The 305 graduates walked onto the field and to their seats to the school’s concert band’s rendition of “Pomp and Circumstance” in front of bleachers packed with family and friends on a stifling evening. The start of the program had been pushed back an hour to 7 p.m., to avoid the worst of the late-day sun.

As the graduates embark on the next stage of their lives, some of the addresses from student leaders, faculty and administrators struck a theme of the need for resiliency and adaptability while resisting the temptation to withdraw whenever there may be uncertainty ahead. 

“You can’t take a journey while staying in the same place,” said valedictorian Gabriel Wierzchowski. “Having to take a step back every time I felt scared, I probably still would have been in the parking lot watching others taking the cues I refused myself.”

Superintendent of Schools Robert Glass told the graduates that he admired them and they were an example “of the very best our school and our community has to offer.” He spoke of the need for them to use their critical thinking skills that they acquired at home and in school to help discern what is real and what is not, in a world constantly changing with new technology such as artificial intelligence and the proliferation of social media.

Glass pointed to three qualities that have helped people achieve a good life throughout time: reason, wisdom, and virtue.

“Graduates, may I suggest as you go forward into your bright future, when you’re confronted with a situation that may be a little disorienting, where you might be questioning what is real, perhaps you can best do so by relying most on what you have always known to be real all throughout your life,” Glass said. 

“Both the people and the skills that have always been at the core of your support system on the road to success, your family, your friends, your trusted relationships within this community that cares about you so much. The skills that have been built in your K-12 experience and by your family. These are the things that will never fail you; these are the things that will endure as in the days of Aristotle and Socrates.”

In her remarks to the audience, salutatorian Ava Schuster recounted her ASPIRE program internship in her final semester, working in Pound Ridge planting trees and restoring habitats, and her science research course. It could be difficult, repetitive work, and the outcome typically is unknown, she said.

While high school graduates often feel pressured to have their futures mapped out, success usually takes time.

“But nature doesn’t demand certainty; it demands persistence,” Schuster said. “Best things take time. So will we, and I hope that we carry that lesson with us, that we don’t need to have everything figured out right away. That trial and error is still learning, that changing direction isn’t failing, it’s called adapting, and nature is great with that and so are we.”

An address from retiring physics teacher Jerry Ludwig reinforced the point of taking a chance and pursuing opportunity. Ludwig related his story of growing up in a single-parent household after his parents’ divorce, moving to Maine to be near family and being an indifferent student.

However, Ludwig said he was good with his hands and always knew how to fix things. A high school chemistry teacher recognized these qualities and urged him to attend a science and engineering symposium at the University of New Hampshire.

Electrical engineering would become his major, and after working for Con Edison and later IBM, where layoffs threatened his future at the company, Ludwig heard about a teacher’s opening at Fox Lane. With already a family to support, he took a leap of faith to pursue a teacher’s accreditation and a new career.

He said there will be unexpected moments in everyone’s life, and how well each graduate handles their situations and opportunities can determine their path.

“I know some of you are nervous, but I promise you, you got this,” said Ludwig, who is retiring this week after 28 years at Fox Lane. “You can do this. You are more adaptable than you think you are. You can navigate life’s curves. As Fox Lane graduates, you have acquired the ability to think independently, to think critically and to think creatively. This will permit you to do and try anything. Don’t get put into a box before you can show what you can do."