Cow bells, air horns and jubilant cheers rang out intermittently
from Sobrato High School’s football field, as the names of 349
members of the class of 2010 were announced at the school’s
commencement ceremony.
Cow bells, air horns and jubilant cheers rang out intermittently from Sobrato High School’s football field, as the names of 349 members of the class of 2010 were announced at the school’s commencement ceremony.
Only the graduates smiled wider and more continuously than their friends and relatives in the audience, as many shared hugs with their classmates and some danced down the aisle after receiving their diplomas.
“It doesn’t feel real,” said Kidisti Daniel, 18, whose cousins traveled to Morgan Hill from Virginia to witness Friday’s ceremony. “It feels like I was in my freshman year yesterday.”
“We’re so proud. She’s the best kid, a top student,” said her uncle, Solomon Berayes.
Still bedecked in her maroon graduation gown and a colorful array of celebratory and honorary neckwear after the ceremony, Daniel said she will attend University of California, Riverside, on a scholarship, to study physical sciences.
Her fellow graduates have a variety of career and college plans, with cumulative scholarship receipts of about $500,000, according to student body president Franchesca “Frankie” Kellett, who spoke at the ceremony. The opportunities won during their four years at Sobrato, and those they will gain as a result in the future “will keep us united,” Kellett said.
Salutatorian Danielle Thanh wished her classmates luck as they apply their education to the real world.
“Embrace these 13 years of acquired skills,” Thanh said.
About 3,000 people attended Sobrato High’s graduation celebration, according to Principal Deborah Padilla, who opened the ceremony by congratulating the class of 2010.
The graduates’ excited fans carried homemade signs, balloons, and beach balls as they hurried across the north Morgan Hill school’s athletic field to find the closest seats they could before the ceremony. Many remained standing throughout the celebration to ensure unobstructed camera angles.
Receiving thunderous applause from the class of 2010 was valedictorian Josh Yip, who addressed the graduates with a hypothetical travel situation along a road that suddenly comes to a fork. The importance of deciding which direction to continue has less to do with the desired destination, and more to do with “the journey” and the experiences gained and friendships made along the way, he said.
“That’s what life is really all about – living,” Yip said.
Sobrato teacher and the ceremony’s keynote speaker Marla Carroll advised the 2010 graduates to continue their lives as independent and unique individuals, but to “resist the temptation to see yourselves as the center of the universe.”
Quoting from a variety of sources in popular culture and literature, from Oprah Winfrey to Dr. Seuss, she urged the students to remain confident throughout adulthood, as they are the ones who will enact needed changes in the world.
“I wish all of you an A-plus in happiness,” Carroll exclaimed.
Following the ceremony, the graduates met up with their supporters in a courtyard outside Sobrato’s academic buildings.
Graduate Brenda Trivizan’s parents, walking across the field to congratulate their daughter at the rendezvous point, were “ecstatic” following the ceremony. Ed and Monica Trevizan proudly proclaimed their daughter’s achievements as a “top-10 student” in the class of 2010, and a University of Texas pre-frosh who will study veterinary science starting in the fall.
Also moving to Texas in the fall is Brenda’s boyfriend and fellow 2010 graduate Jarrod Poole, 18, who played football and baseball for Sobrato. He will attend Austin Community College, with plans to transfer to University of Texas soon.
“It feels amazing” to be a high school graduate, Poole said.
Brianna Sholars, 17, has attended Morgan Hill Unified schools since kindergarten and will begin studying business at San Jose State University later this year. Graduating Friday with some of the same classmates she went to elementary and middle school with is “a dream come true,” Sholars said.
About 20 of Sholars’ relatives, hailing from as far away as Tennessee, were in town for the ceremony at Sobrato.
“This seemed like a day that would never come,” added graduate Charles Bynum, 18, among his grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousins and other family members. A four-year Sobrato basketball player, Bynum will continue his education at Mission College in Santa Clara and wants to become a firefighter.
Five sets of twins graduated from Sobrato’s class of 2010, and one of them was Amanda and Brianna Margozzi, 17.
“I’m proud of them,” said their father Mike Margozzi, noting the girls are his and wife Claudia’s only children. “It’s a milestone in their lives, and they’re becoming independent.”
Jacob Wagener, 19, said he is relieved to have “possibly the biggest chapter” in his life over with, but he enjoyed his four years as a Sobrato student.
“It was about finding out more and more about yourself and finding the best friends you can,” Wagener said.
Classmate James Follett, presenting the ceremony’s senior speech, implored the 2010 graduates to leave Sobrato’s campus for the last time Friday reflecting on the high school experience they all shared.
“I want us all to remember the people we were (four years ago), and to know the people we’ve become,” Follett said.
