DANVERS — St. John’s Preparatory School held its 115th commencement exercises on Saturday afternoon as Head of School Edward Hardiman conferred diplomas upon 288 seniors during an outdoor ceremony held on the school’s campus.
The ceremony was marked by themes of prioritizing time well spent, embracing lived experience versus chronicled milestones and tackling the future emboldened by past adversity.
The Prep’s graduating class included 11 students from Salem, including National Merit Scholar Commended senior Lucas Nieto, as well as another 104 graduates from Danvers, Marblehead, Swampscott, Boxford, Beverly, Topsfield and Peabody.
The Senior Class speaker was Matthew Theodore, of Stoneham, who preceded a valedictory address by Peter Truong, of Andover. English teacher Andrew Fondell, of Rowley, delivered the commencement address. The Salutatorian Medal went to Theodore Karlin, of Swampscott.
Nathan Bernaducci, of Greenland, New Hampshire, received the Xaverian Award, the highest honor the school can bestow upon a graduating senior and presented to the class member who best epitomizes the values and tradition of Xaverian education. Bernaducci will matriculate at Wake Forest University this fall.
In his remarks to graduates, Hardiman implored graduates to meet the moment and, in the spirit of Pope Leo XIV’s first post-election homily, to take in the marvels that have occurred during their past four years.
“Each person here has most likely experienced challenges and may still be, but this afternoon, let the marvels, the amazing deeds sink in and in the midst of them, see the many blessings, graces and experiences of love that have marked your time as students, graduates and members of the Prep community,” he said.
“Your class has achieved great things. We have talked to you about servant leadership, embracing everyone as created in the image and likeness of God and empowering all whom you encounter to be unique expressions of God’s love in the world.
“Our hope and prayer is that you always remember these words, that you live by these words and that you allow these words to inform your actions as you seek to become the change we need to see in our world.”
Fondell, a native of Minnesota, advised graduates to be mindful of and generous with their time, but not free with it.
“For the next four years and the many years beyond them, your life will increasingly be a product of your own time management,” he said. “Time is valuable because it is scarce and it is perpetually growing more scarce. So, how will you choose to spend your most precious resource? I wouldn’t dare answer that for you. Each of us must answer it for ourselves and we have to continue answering it as time marches on.”
Sixty-two percent of Prep graduating seniors were members of the National Honor Society, while eight were National Merit Commended students and two — Winchester’s Daniel Cahill and Beverly’s Matthew Church — were honored as a National Merit Scholar Finalist.
Stoneham’s Theodore, the senior class speaker who will attend Georgetown University this fall, urged his classmates to trust their proven ability to navigate the uncertain.
“We have found friendships in places we never thought we’d find them and meaningful experiences in activities we previously knew nothing about. In embracing the unfamiliar, we learned to be for something: To be curious, not cool; to grow and explore our passions–whatever they may be.
“Today, we are standing at the edge of something new — a future that in many ways mirrors a time when we were all strangers coming together for the first time. And we will face what comes next as mature, thoughtful and caring young men.”
In his valedictory address, Truong encouraged his classmates to look beyond the photos on family cell phones and reflect on the lived experience that led to those snapshots.
Bound for Harvard University, he said “We’re going to remember this day, but let us be sure to appreciate what it took to get here. The pictures we see may show moments of growth, but you often won’t see setbacks, the anguish that comes with failure, the stress that comes with trying to achieve our best.
“But those moments are just as needed; the unglamorous process of learning, experimenting and growing should be remembered and captured in the photographs of our minds.”