Poughkeepsie High School

On a night to revel in growth and accomplishment, Salome Vergara looked back on what she was like when she first entered Poughkeepsie High School.

She had just moved to the country from Colombia and was “extremely” quiet, she recalled, to the point where some of her teachers thought she simply didn’t speak.

“With time, I started to open up more, talk to my peers and teachers more, and eventually became comfortable talking to larger crowds,” Vergara said.

The proof was evident: Vergara on Friday evening spoke from a podium in front of hundreds as the Poughkeepsie High School Class of 2025’s salutatorian.

Poughkeepsie held its 153rd Commencement Exercises on a perfect summer evening, as more than 170 students clad in blue caps and gowns were awarded their diplomas. The group included 25 students who finished their four years with an average of 90 or better, as well as 24 who were graduating with through the Career Development and Occupational Students, of CDOS, pathway.

In addition to those long-awaited, handshake-filled trips across the stage, the students listened to a series of speakers. Courage to grow, try new things, recover from failure and take on the world was a theme addressed by many of them.

Vergara, who began high school as an English as a New Language student but was taking honors and AP classes by the following year, largely credited the Air Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or AFJROTC, program for instilling in her the confidence and opportunity to grow into a vocal leader.

Possessing the courage and poise to deliver her speech, she said, “was the result of four years of hard work. I stand here today, not because I was the loudest in the room, but because I showed up, put in the effort and stayed consistent.

“Keep showing up, keep doing the work, and let your growth speak for itself,” she said.

Valedictorian Jhanae Stewart told her classmates, “we’ve all arrived here because of one shared trait: determination.”

She encouraged the class to live loudly and embody the enthusiasm of youth, noting the tests they face in the real world can easily quiet their confidence.

“It takes guts to believe in yourself,” Stewart said. “You owe it to yourself to try, even when the odds seem impossible.”

Like Vergara, Stewart moved to Poughkeepsie from her native Jamaica before freshman year. And, unlike any graduation ceremony before, Poughkeepsie embraced and celebrated its diverse culture Friday.

The district this year offered live translation from English to Spanish, using on-site translators communicating through devices non-English speaking attendees could pick up as they entered the field. Board of Education President Fatimah Carmen Martinez Santiago translated her own words, speaking each paragraph first in English and then in Spanish.

Class of 2025 President Jocelyn Rojas-Antonio was thinking similarly as she prepared her own speech. After stepping to the podium, she warned the audience most of her address would be in Spanish, in recognition of the many non-English speaking parents in the audience.

Throughout the students time in school, those parents “sat through ceremonies and school events they didn’t always understand, but they showed up, nonetheless, with pride, with love, and with the deepest hopes for our future,” Rojas-Antonio said. “Today, I speak directly to them and honor them.”

The tribute wasn’t the only emotional moment of the ceremony. Before the graduates received their diplomas, the family of Jamir Jackson came to the stage to receive an honorary diploma and flowers. Jackson would have graduated Friday; he died unexpectedly in 2022 of a heart condition at the age of 14.

The ceremony began with a procession from the high school across Forbus Street and through the main gate for the football field, decorated by balloon archways, as the high school orchestra played “Pomp and Circumstance.” With the AFJROTC presenting the American Flag, Sonia Gutierrez-Mendoza performed the national anthem and Delsie Acevedo sang “Lift Every Voice,” which is widely identified as the Black national anthem.

Dr. Phee Simpson, school principal, then set the tone for the night with a welcome address, speaking about the courage that will be needed beyond high school.

“Here’s the truth: Your choices shape your character and your character shapes your future,” she said. “There may be times when the paths ahead look uncertain or the goals feel too far away. You may even hear voices, maybe even your own, saying you can’t do it. But I want you to remember something powerful: Yes you can.

“Yes, you can rise above the doubt. Yes, you can keep going when it’s tough. Yes, you can be the first, the only and the one who makes the difference,” she said.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Eric Jay Rosser and keynote speaker Rob Watson Jr. each challenged students to gather the courage not just to thrive personally but to enact change as citizens of Poughkeepsie and the world.

Rosser, who will be stepping down from his role on Monday, implored the students to “never underestimate the power of your voice. … Speak up. Speak out. Let your voices be heard.”

Watson, valedictorian of the Poughkeepsie High School Class of 2005, has been a valued ally of the district’s mission as a champion for children both as a co-founder of the Poughkeepsie Children’s Cabinet and through using his resources to aid the city as the EdRedesign Executive Director at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He opened his speech by asking the graduates to stand and turn to the audience to give a round of applause to “their village,” which supported them through high school.

Watson recalled for the students what it was like for him during his first few weeks attending Harvard, as a valedictorian falling behind his classmates quickly and feeling doubt.

“That period of failure was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” he explained. “Failing forced me to evaluate my habits and how I spent my time. I realized I couldn’t just rely on my natural ability and had to come up with a game plan – not only to do better in school but to live life in the fullest.

“As graduates, I encourage you to embrace failure as a necessary part of your journey,” he continued. “Let it humble you. Let it sharpen you. Let it help you evolve into a greater version of yourself you haven’t even met yet.”

Watson shared tales of service and success around the world in the years that followed college, as he gained a better understanding how to enact change and aid communities in need. It’s a journey that armed him with knowledge, tools and connections to now aid Poughkeepsie, and he encouraged the graduates to do the same.

“It will take courage to you to pursue your dreams,” he said. “You’ll be tempted to measure your worth in degrees, ‘Likes’ and dollars. But real courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s choosing to lean into discomfort and trust that, even in the zig-zag of life, your purpose with become clear and the world will make itself known to you.”