Vestal: Students leave mark of academic excellence

Tag : decorated tassel

A few thousand parents, relatives and friends waved and cheered astheir graduate marched down the aisle of the Binghamton UniversityEvents Center. Graduates wore green or gold, the school's colors.Green and gold balloons and a statue of the school's mascot, theVestal golden bear, decorated the Events Center.
Graduates applauded classmates, tooted horns and batted beach ballsback and forth. Other inflatable objects flew through the airSaturday including dolphins, snakes, a monkey and a blow-up doll.
High School Principal Catherine Hepler paused to let the beachballs bounce around before introducing honor students.

"Are you ready to move on?" she asked the beach ball throwingstudents. "This is the part where I talk about how exemplary youall are." Parents roared with laughter.

On the serious side, the Class of 2008 was so competitiveacademically that students needed to achieve a weighted average ofmore than 100 to make the top 10, Hepler said. Seventy-eightgraduates wore gold honor tassels and gold cords signifying thatthey achieved a 94.5 average or higher for six semesters.

Pooja Doshi, a member of the top 10, earned several academic honorsand completed the rigorous International Baccalaureate program.

"I felt like I should challenge myself during high school toprepare myself for college," said Doshi, who's heading to theWharton School of the University of Pennsylvania this fall.

Adam Goldenberg wore gold honor cords and a gold tassel along withhis drumsticks taped to his mortarboard. The drummer wanted tohonor his love of music and make it easier for his family to findhim in the crowd.

Valedictorian Adam Davis offered graduates advice.

"Don't ever give up hope," he said. "Seize life with an open mindand heart."

His speech was greeted by more beach balls sailing above the rowsof graduates.