Chaminade Holds 80th Annual Commencement

A total of 433 white tuxedos, red bow-ties and accompanying cummerbunds were handed out last week to each of the members of the 2011 graduating class of .

It is the largest class the all-boys Catholic high school has graduated in the 80 years since the school’s founding, filling the stage at C.W. Post’s Tilles Center and the accompanying theater to the brim with parents, relatives and friends.

“May they always experience a spirit of wonder and awe in Your presence,” Fr. Garrett Long, S.M.  said in his invocation at the beginning of the two-hour ceremony, “and strengthen their resolve to to take the risks which are necessary to follow Your way in society and truth.”

Ryan Brunetti was named the salutatorian of the Class of 2011, and posed the question of his classmates of what they define as success, whether it being the American ideal of wealth and possessions or of a more personal fulfillment.

“Money or fame can make us happy but can never be the only thing that gives us fulfillment,” he said. “Ultimately it’s being content with and being proud of our lives and our places in the world. It’s not measured by the amount of money we accumulate throughout our lives, or the number of friends we have on Facebook.”

Brunetti also offered a slightly modified version of a quote from physicist Albert Einstein: “Try not to become a man of success but rather a man of value and you’ll truly be successful.”

Valedictorian Dylan Scarpato remembers that he “saw Chaminade as an impossible hurdle, especially having to finish most of my assignments during the car rides to different school activities and hockey games. Looking back, the past 4 years have passed quickly, a statement that would have sounded absurd when we were freshmen.”

A member of the hockey team along with Matthew, his twin brother, Scarpato admitted that many of the graduating seniors sitting on stage must have once again felt like freshman: “we have many of the same anxieties that we had as incoming freshmen. Next year we will be going off to new places and meeting new faces. Whether we are going five minutes from home or five hours, we will be faced with new challenges and additional impossible situations which could make the next 4 years difficult. However, in spite of these impossible situations, we... need not be afraid because we’ve already faced and conquered al these worries and learned how to make the impossible possible.”

All the members of the senior class applied to and were accepted into colleges, though only 429 are planning on attending. The class earned a combined 1,164 scholarships, five of them athletic, the remainder academic. Seven members plan on attending United States Service academies. A total of seven graduates were National Merit Scholarship Finalists while 20 were named as commended students.

“Despite mixed emotions, this should be a very proud and very joyous moment in your lives because you can look on the stage and find your son who’s graduating from an elite high school and attending college next year, a privilege not every person accomplishes,” Scarpato said.

Chaminade Principal Bro. Joseph Bellizzi, S.M. offered a final lesson to each of the young men which had passed through the halls of the school over the past 4 years, saying that when they climbed the steps of 340 Jackson Avenue, “you were introduced to the concepts of the Chaminade Man: someone who does the right thing at the right time because it is the right thing to do regardless of who is watching.”

In addition to diplomas and numerous awards, several large trophies are awarded to the most outstanding members of the class, the largest of which is the Chaminade Man award, given to the senior whom embodies the ideals of the school’s namesake: Fr. William Joseph Chaminade.

This year the award went to Eric Haslbauer, known for his “generous spirit” and “willing to help regardless of the task,” according to school President Fr. James C. Williams, S.M.  Among other activities including track, cross country, and teaching religion to elementary students, Haslbauer spent time volunteering to build homes in West Virginia. He will be attending Molloy College’s business program in the fall.

“For the past 4 years you have learned what is the right thing to do... but we have sought to do more than that. Whatever you do or say, always strive to be a living expression of the life that He led when He was among us,” Bellizzi said to the class, referring to Christ. “While you may forget many lessons that you have been taught, let this be a lesson that you always remember: be like Him.”

Click for photos of the entire Class of 2011!