Seniors from NCSSM-Morganton and NCSSM-Durham (pictured here) turned their tassels on consecutive days to become the school’s newest members of its 15,000+ alumni. (photo: Brian Faircloth)
Two days of Commencement ceremonies celebrated the newest graduates of the NCSSM Residential program in Morganton and Durham, with some 470 students from more than 70 North Carolina counties receiving NCSSM diplomas.
Initiating the tassel-turning were the 140-plus seniors of NCSSM-Morganton who assembled in their regalia beneath a white-washed sky in front of the campus’s iconic Barn on Thursday, May 21.
Rohin Patel delivered the student remarks. The graduating senior, who came to NCSSM-Morganton from Cuthbertson High School in Waxhaw, referenced the nearby foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains when he encouraged his classmates to always remember that the greatest achievements are grounded in community.
“The highest peaks don’t stand alone,” Rohin said. “They’re part of a range, each one connected to the others, each one made stronger by what surrounds it. We grew because of each other, because of the friendships we formed, the teachers who guided us, and the community we built together. We arrived here as individuals, but we leave as something stronger: a group connected by shared challenges, shared curiosity, and shared purpose.”
The following day, the ceremony had moved to Durham where 340-plus members of NCSSM-Durham’s 45th graduating class gathered with friends and family in the company of century-old oaks on the school’s Watts Lawn to receive their diplomas.
John Guo, who came to NCSSM from John T. Hoggard High School in Wilmington, delivered the student address. He spoke of the unique bond that develops between NCSSM students, likening it to the strength of the trees beneath which they all waited anxiously – and perhaps a bit tearfully – to transition from classmates to alumni.
“We came here as strangers. We leave as the people who watched each other become,” he said. “And we are not finished. We are not the final version of ourselves. We are the version that learned, at 17, that you can love people you’ve known for two years as deeply as people you’ve known your whole life. . . .
“The roots we grew here. . . do not come undone just because we walk off this lawn. The oak trees around us have stood here for over a century, their roots intertwined so deep underground that what looks like separate trees is actually one connected thing. I think we are the same way. The roots hold. I promise you. The roots hold.”
Dr. Helen Moore ’84, who holds a PhD in mathematics and is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida in the College of Medicine, was on hand in both Morganton and Durham to share her thoughts with NCSSM’s latest class of graduates.
“Inflection points like graduation give us a chance to ponder the big questions [such as] where will my journey take me next?” she said. “Given your education, it should be really good news for you to hear that all of life is a constrained optimization problem. I ask you, what will you do with your remaining time?
“I like a quote from Jon Kabat-Zinn (Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School) that aligns with my philosophy of life being a constrained optimization problem. He said: ‘You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.’”
Like Moore, NCSSM’s Chancellor, Dr. Todd Roberts, addressed students at both campuses where he praised them for the bonds they developed before sending them all out into the world with the same shared promise:
“The NCSSM community is a place you each help to create,” he told the assembled graduates. “A place where you feel you belong, a place where you make others feel they belong, and a place where you all make each other better than you might have been on your own. Your class … has done just that. I admire you so much and I know that in the years to come you will bring to the communities you join all of the things that make you you, making those places better than you found them, just as you’ve done thus far. I wish you the very best next year and in all the years ahead, and know that we at NCSSM will always be part of your crew!”
