Foxborough High Class Night Gives Class of 2012 a Bittersweet Moment

As class vce president Shannon Suss opened Foxborough High Class Night, there was a surreal sense that after years of anticipation and hard work, all of a sudden high school was over for the soon to be graduates Thursdy night.

“Isn’t it weird being here right now?” Suss asked in her opening remarks. “I know how much all of us just want to get out of here and go on to college and start a new life. But now that it’s here, I know I wish I could start high school all over again. The past four years have been an absolute blast and I’ll miss everyone.”

The retiring principal Jeffrey Theodoss and teacher Gerald Roy were both acknowledged with speeches from Edward Shine and Amanda Gallagher.

“As our principal, he has served as an impassionate role model, friend and educational leader for all of Foxborough High School. He is an education who is always looking out for the best interest of his students and that’s the bottom line,” Shine said of Theodoss.

Of Roy, Gallagher noted that the art department would not be as successful as it is today without his insight and guidance. Roy, who is also the head of the art department, will be retiring after 36 years of teaching.

“He always challenged me to push myself. He did this with all of his students. When I thought I was done with a project I would always hear the dreaded ‘but you’re not done’ or ‘but what if you?"  Although it frustrated me at the time, those words were a blessing in disguise because it pushed me to think out of the box and to really stretch my potential,” Gallagher said about Roy.

Recognition was also given to music educator Stephen Massey, history teacher Todd Kaeser, and English teacher Walter Mitchell.

“He pushes you out of your comfort zone so you can grow to your true potential. Without this encouragement I could still be like the shy freshman I was when I walked into FHS,” Mairead Leahy said about Massey.

In his speech about Kaeser, Nicholas Roche explained how Kaeser inspired him to want to become a teacher.

“There are literally too many things to say about how awesome of a teacher and person Mr. Kaeser is,” Roache said. ”I’m considering one day becoming a history teacher after college. Had I not had Kase (Kaeser) as a teacher there’s a good chance I wouldn’t want to pursue that profession.”

Suss returned to the podium to say a few words about Mitchell and the lessons learned in his classroom.

“I have never taken a better class in my entire life,” Suss said of Mitchell’s AP English class. “What I will forever cherish are the life lessons I learned from Mr. Mitchell. I learned about love, about tragedy, about over coming setbacks, and I learned about myself.”

Salutatorian Kaileigh Riess and N.H.S. president Kelsey Evans had the honor of giving the senior speeches.

Reiss emphasized the value of the emotional satisfaction she received as a member of FHS and hopes to maintain it in college.

“We have all found some sort of emotional fulfillment in the friendships that we’ve made here,” Reiss said. “Make new friends but remain faithful to the memories of the old ones.”

As Evans ‘ speech ended the evening before Sine’s final thank you, it was evident that what the Class of 2012 was special if only because of the high praise given to the group all night.

“The bonds we have built with one another have become more and more evident over the last two weeks,” Evans said. “We have laid a foundation of trust and respect that is evident in how difficult it is for us to say goodbye.”

As the students walked out to their recessional class song, “Boss of Me Now” by "They Might Be Giants," the only thing that is left for the Class of 2012 is to graduate Sunday afternoon. The exercises will be the last for Theodoss who is retiring following the end of the school year.

“It’s bittersweet. The journey ends very quickly and goes by real quickly but if its gotta end this is the perfect class to end it with,” Theodoss said after Class Night. “They are a classy group of young men and women and in the four years we’ve had a lot of fun.”

In awards, Alana Prinos was named the class valedictorian with the highest GPA. Prinos was also awarded the M.S.S.A.A. Student Achievement Award. Kaileigh Reiss was the salutatorian. Kelsey Evans, Sarah Curran, Brett Cresey, Sierra Wilbar, Katherine Delaney, Shannon Suss, and Samantha Carlson rounded out the top 10 ranked students.

Cresey was also awarded the National Merit Scholarship Program and Daughter of the American Revolution Award later that evening.

Student leadership awards were given to class president Eddie Shine, vice president Shannon Suss, secretary Samantha Motta, Treasure Aiza Zia, student council president Katherine Shea, and N.H.S. president Kelsey Evans.

Department awards were given to the following:

Amanda Gallagher, Elizabeth Delaney and Cooper Vacheron, Art; Megan Sullivan and Kendall Stopa Theater Arts; Megan Sullivan English; Alana Prinos Math; Samantha Carlson and Alana Prinos, Science; Sierra Wilbar, World Languages; Mairead Leahy, Music; Leah Callahan, Consumer Science; Noah Cronin, Isaac Shakeri, Cole Putnam, and Nicholas Roche, Technical Education; Noah Cronin and Abby Tepper, Wellness; Eddie Shine, History. Sierra Wilbar was also honored with a gift from the History department for her contributions and assistances to the department.

Katie Davidson was given the Mr. Guy Sportsmanship Award and Katherine Delaney was awarded the Best Buddies Award.

Athletic Director Craig Najarian presented Brendan Sullivan and Alana Prinos with the scholar/athlete award. Jake Soccorso and Meghan Foley were given the Blue and Gold Awards. The Alvin Stewart Spirit Award was given to Shannon Suss. Greg Stamatov and Abbby Tepper were named the Warriors of the Year. Suss and Soccorso were also each given a $1,000 scholarship from the Foxborough Youth Baseball Association.

The F.H.S. Kicker Club gave the graduating members of the 2011-2012 soccer teams a $200 scholarship. Graduating seniors included Kristina Ketchum, Leah Callahan, Brooke Martyniak, Tess Parsons, Sam Motta, Sawyer Fleck, Dan Adair, Brandon Fowler, Aiden Campbell, Robbie Haddad, Andrew Geffers and Brett Murray.

A number of scholarships were also handed out during the evening.

Recipients include:

Kelli Abdou, the Ahern/Connors Scholarship; Michaela May, the George Bedrosian Scholarship; Jessica Broccoli, the Ruston Lodi/Taylor PTO Scholarship; Christina Shaer and Kelli Abdou, the Helen & Blanche Stark Memorial Scholarship; Samantha Carlson, the Francis Ahern Scholarship; Grace Chiang, the Rudolph Narciso Scholarship Trust Fund.

Also: Chelsea Barilovits, the Honey Dew Donut Scholarship; Emily McGowan, the Rockland Trust Charitable Foundation; Alex Noonan, the Brandon McMaster’s Firefighters Memorial Scholarship; Cooper Vacheron, the Jordan Cibley Memorial Scholarship.

Also: Liz Delaney, the Jeff Parker Memorial Scholarship; Sierra Wilbar, the Dexter and Ruth Stripp Memorial Scholarship; Amanda Gallagher, the David Withers Memorial Scholarship; Samantha Carlson, the HUGS Foxborough Scholarship.

Also: Chelsea Barilovits, Abby Tepper, Kathleen Flannery, Sierra Wilbar, and Jen Peterson; the John Ahern Scholarship; Jessica Septelka, Kathleen Flannery, Julia Kallis, Kayla Carew, and Kelli Abdou, the Spier Family Scholarship.

Also: Andrew Moses, the Kaye Naylor Scholarship; Randall Parker and Shannon Suss, the Edwin Guy Memorial Scholarship; Sierra Wilbar, the Michael McGinty Memorial Scholarship; Hussein Antar, the W. Duane Lockard Scholarship.

Also: Kayla Scheffer, the Jackie Thomas Scholarship, Megan Sullivan, the Sharon Credit Union Scholarship; Sierra Wilbar, the Laura Remillard Memorial Scholarship; Samantha Carlson, the William Palladino Memorial Scholarship; John Jepson, the Canton Town Club Scholarship.