Class of 2023 Graduation

June 27, 2023

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After a one-day delay due to a rainy forecast, the Sayville High School Class of 2023 officially graduated at noon on Saturday June 24. 

The Class of 2023 is an extremely accomplished group of students. Ninety-five percent of the students in the Class of 2023 will go on to further education and approximately ninety-nine percent of graduates earned Regents diplomas this year. Another point of pride is that eighty-one percent of the Class of 2023 will attend a four-year college or university, the district’s highest percentage ever. 

In addition, in attendance at the 2023 Sayville High School graduation were Sayville graduates from 1948 through 2022.

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Salutatorian Karishma Patel gave a beautiful speech titled “The Importance of Being.” 

“Being vs doing,” Karishma told her fellow graduates. “We often conflate these two ideas. While the difference may seem small, what we choose to be is far more important than what we choose to do.” 

“In whatever careers we decide to pursue, there will always be tasks to complete, deadlines to meet, pressures to navigate, time we must manage, and the ever-present battle against procrastination.” 

“In such an environment, we think the only way to get through is to do do do but much is lost in that approach. We lose sight of our greater purpose.”

Karishma explained that for a long time it felt that all she knew was how to do. Only recently, she said, did she discover the experience of being. 

Karishma spoke to her fellow graduates about their generation and all they had witnessed together.

“But beyond our collective fondness for viral challenges, we are a generation that cares deeply about the world around us,” Karishma said. We have witnessed the injustices that persist and the inequalities that divide. We have seen the effects of climate change and the prohibition on girls' education. We have heard the cries for racial justice and gender equality. There is no doubt that our lives, especially in the last few years, have so far been populated with disasters, tragedies, and heartbreaks, but that only drives us to do more.”

“But here’s the thing: we have something incredibly powerful on our side, and that is our passion. We may be young, but we are fierce.”

Karishma reminded her classmates that while work must be done, it's important to take time for oneself, whether that’s binging Netflix or hanging out with friends. 

“We all live in a life where we must do do do but let the moments of who we want to be guide what we want to do,” Karishma concluded.

Patricia Ann Kubelle Memorial Award Winner Benjamin Flaumenhaft sang “I’ll Follow the Sun.”

After dancing up to the podium to the tune of James Browns’ “I Got You”, valedictorian Michael Pitre had his fellow graduates close their eyes.

“Now think of the sky- not blue and bright as it is today, but thick with dark ominous clouds,” Michael asked of his fellow graduates. “Piercing through these clouds, you can see a brilliant rainbow, a glimmer of hope. At the bottom of the rainbow is the color violet, or purple, holding up the rest of the colors as they break through the clouds with fierce determination. If you look all the way to the end of the rainbow, you’ll see a pot of gold, sparkling not with the allure of money, but with irrepressible happiness and laughter.”

Michael then had the graduates open their eyes. 

“Look out amongst the beautiful faces behind me. In each and every one of my peers, you can clearly see there is a perfect mix of purple and gold- of mental fortitude and spirited joy. On the electromagnetic spectrum, purple is the strongest color because its wavelength is very short.”  

Michael continued on to remind his fellow graduates of everything that they had been through together, from the COVID-19 pandemic, to learning from home and being split up into cohorts. 

“The Class of 2023 understands that sometimes, we had to work hard to find joy - to find our pot of gold. For us, that was senior year. We started off the year by gathering at Land’s End for Senior Sunrise. Soon after, we laughed at a comedy show from our favorite film producers while eating breakfast and receiving yearbook superlatives.”

My class’s purple willpower has filled this past year with tremendous accomplishments: we have a research paper in the process of being published in an international journal, our Dance and Flag Football teams were both built up from scratch, and our Girls’ Cross Country team brought home a state championship. But let’s not forget, these feats couldn’t have been done without a bit of fun. Countless gold-plated friendships have been forged in the auditorium, the labs, and on the fields. With each of these connections, we’ve lifted each other up to success. You see, for the Class of 2023, purple and gold- determination and joy- go hand in hand, just like our football players as they walked onto this very field before going on to win the Suffolk County Championship.”

Michael called on his class to not only make the world a better place but to enjoy themselves while doing it.

Vice President of the Board of Education Thomas Cooley began his speech by recognizing Board of Education President John Verdone, who could not be there for graduation. 

“John Verdone, our board president, has dedicated more than twenty years of community service,” Mr. Cooley told the crowd. “He has led Sayville Schools through some of the most difficult of times and always his number one priority was doing what was good for students of Sayville.” 

Mr. Cooley then spoke to the graduates about the mantra he said to his sons when they were growing up “do good, be good.” 

“A lifetime of simple acts of kindness is all it takes,” Mr. Cooley told the graduates, “And the key is respect. Respect for the less fortunate, respect for those who are different and respect for those with a difference of opinion.”