Poughkeepsie High School Achieves 100% Graduation Rate

By Liz Gaschler

POUGHKEEPSIE – A sense of pride and cheer filled the Poughkeepsie High School auditorium as the 145th commencement ceremony took place on June 23. With 231 graduates, 35 of those high honor graduates, 2017 was the largest graduating class in the past 10 years. With a 100 percent graduation rate – faculty, students and family came together to celebrate the completion of a huge life milestone.

Excited families cheered as their young adults grabbed their seats. Principal Mrs. Phee Simpson stood at the podium. She reminded the students that their high school diploma was an example of “how capable you are of accomplishing your goals when you commit to them.”

Poughkeepsie High School students decorated their caps with pride.

A lesson that encompassed all of the speeches at the ceremony.

“What’s our goal?” Superintendent Dr. Nicolé L. Williams shouted.

“Excellence!” echoed through the auditorium.

“This is only a beginning,” Williams said. “Continue to strive, to grow and to stretch your imagination.”

The presence of mutual respect was obvious as each faculty member spoke. Mr. Ralph S. Coates said his goodbyes to the last class he would witness graduate. After six years Coates was thanked for his hard work at Poughkeepsie High School.

Salutatory Dorothy Benton left the crowd, faculty and colleagues in tears as she choked up through her speech.

“Many people are afraid of change, but I am not,” Benton said.

She looked at her classmates and reminded them not to be afraid of what’s ahead and to shy away from the status quo.

Valedictorian Christopher Cassidy addressed his family, teachers and classmates, thanking each one by naming a unique characteristic he would always remember about them. By the sound of the crowd, his projections were correct.

Keynote speaker Mr. Michael Murphy, designer, writer, teacher and executive director of MASS Design Group, an architecture and design collaborative located in Boston and Kigali, Rwanda, spoke to the students about his journey.

The moment Murphy graduated from Poughkeepsie High School in 1998, he decided to travel far away from his home. Landing in South Africa, he found himself caught in an “unbelievable misguided search for success” and felt lost. An aspiring writer, writing pieces only his eyes would see while working at a local salon.

What brought him home was a call from his mother, telling him his father has found a lump in his stomach and it was terminal cancer. When he returned to his home on Hooker Ave, he was on “death watch” for his father. As he began to look around the architecture of his old Poughkeepsie house, he became inspired. In honor of his father, he started the remodeling his father always wanted but was now unable to accomplish.

As the months passed, he stood on his newly renovated porch with his father who was now in full remission.  His father admits that the house saved his life and Murphy agreed, it had opened a whole new path for him. What used to be old and unattractive eyesore was turned into a great sense of satisfaction.  With his new perception, he began looking at Poughkeepsie in a whole new light.

“This is a place of beauty, we must fight for its beauty while getting others to see it and be the stewards of this home,” Murphy said. He ended with a reminder that the journey is the process, not the product that gives us purpose and reiterated his three points.

1.) Do not aim for success, the more that it is your target, the more you will miss.

2.) Home is where the heart is. Inspiration might be right in front of you.

3.) Fight for justice. When history is being created, fight on the right side of it.

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