VALEDICTORIAN Pony Tang and salutatorian Bo Mee Park are the top two graduates of Marianas High School’s Class of 2024.
This year’s commencement exercises were held Wednesday at the MHS campus with 375 seniors receiving their high school diplomas.
School principal Jonathan Aguon said it is MHS’ biggest cohort of graduates.
He noted that the graduates entered their freshman year when he began his first year as principal.
“I know your first year was filled with uncertainties, but you’re finishing strong today,” he said in his remarks. “Dolphins ride the waves to propel themselves forward but this is what you need to do today: use your momentum…to propel yourself to your next step in your lives.” The dolphin is the MHS mascot.
Jane Mozunder, a graduate who is also the student representative to the CNMI Board of Education, commended her classmates for their resilience in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yutu and Super Typhoon Soudelor, and during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“If there’s one lesson we can learn from the graduating seniors here in the Marianas, especially at MHS, it’s the power of resilience. We have faced extraordinary challenges,” she said in her remarks. “We are the Class of 2024, the class of resilience.”
Top 10
The rest of the top 10 graduates are Kamiya Obnimaga, Jane Mozunder, Cindy Ma, Kaitlyn Punzalan, Juruel Magtalas, Aiyana Manglona, Raja Sevugan and Joseph Jimenez.
In her salutatory address, Bo Mee Park said she’s always been “Team ‘No More School’ ” and yet she was sad to leave MHS.
She said senior year was her “bumpiest” yet.
“Being an international student resulted in me repeating the process of application four times for all different sets of schools,” she said. “It was devastating to be in a reality that I did not get to attend my dream college. That there were at least one to two more zeros at the end of my cost of attendance.”
But she said it was also during her senior year when she experienced the most support.
“I believe our teachers, school staff, parents and friends had many positive impacts during our high school years. On behalf of our class I want to thank everyone who supported us all throughout, giving us that extra push whenever we needed it. We thank you all with all our hearts.”
Continue to “push” was her parting message.
“Let’s not lose motivation, let’s stay optimistic no matter what,” Park said. “Remember that there are so many people behind you ready to give you a push, so let’s not be afraid to fail.”
‘Thank yourself’
In his valedictory address, Pony Tang reminded the graduates to extend graciousness to themselves.
“You need to thank yourself,” he said. “You’re the ones who did all the work, you’re the ones who went through 12 years of school despite all the typhoons, coronavirus, and personal challenge and of course the stage four ‘senioritis,’ ” he said. “Before we graduate, tell yourself that you did it all.”
He said “seizing opportunities” is more important than “perfect grades.”
“In the real world grades don’t matter,” he said. “Many of you are smart in your own ways and talented in your own ways. But remember, talent means nothing without effort.”
He urged his classmates to actively pursue their goals.
“If you’re not aware, countless opportunities that are in front of you like right now will disappear,” he said. “Opportunities won’t run to you. You need to run to them to help you to notice them and to use them to achieve your dreams.”
Keynote address
The graduation was highlighted by the keynote address of Frankie Eliptico, the salutatorian of MHS’ Class of 1992 and Northern Marianas College’s vice president for administration and advancement.
“Rid your mind of self-doubt,” he said. “That’s right, those thoughts about not being smart enough, rich enough, attractive enough, or good enough. My friends, ban those thoughts. Delete them, shred them, obliterate them.”
Eliptico also reminded the graduates that the consumption of social media content “takes a toll” on mental health, and that students should be aware of and take precautions against its effect.
“Eventually we begin to measure our worth in the number of likes that we get, in the number of thumbs up in our phone notifications. Worse, we begin to think it’s normal and eventually when we don’t get those likes or superficial affirmations we start questioning our own lives, our capabilities, our competence and our appearance. This leads to feelings of self-doubt and we begin to self-sabotage,” he said.
Eliptico warned that self-sabotage — in the form of low self-esteem, refusing to ask for help, negative self-talk, extreme self-criticism and more — could “undermine our aspirations and our very own well-being.”
He said as interim NMC president from 2018 to 2021, his efforts to raise funds for the college’s recovery encountered doubts from the board of regents and the business community. Still, he said he didn’t give in to self-sabotage.
“I didn’t expect two super typhoons back-to-back. We had just experienced Soudelor, and I didn’t expect to lose the entire campus while I was president,” he said. “Those self-sabotaging thoughts, feelings of self-doubt, questions about my abilities, diminishing self-confidence, and doubts of whether I could lead NMC past this horrific storm started to sink in until I realized what have we got to lose? We already lost everything and have only everything to gain.”
He said he and his team at NMC applied for “every grant available.”
“My friends I can line up almost this entire stage with rejection letters, but for every 10 or 20 no’s we got one big yes. And we kept going, never quitting, never letting self-doubt and self-sabotage take us down. Today I’m proud to say we have raised over 100 million dollars to rebuild Northern Marianas College.”
He said quitting was not something Dolphins do.
“Doubt makes us quit, but quitting was not in my DNA and quitting was certainly not one of the lessons that I learned here at Marianas High School,” he added.
Class Valedictorian Pony Tang and his parents.
Nearly 400 students comprise the MHS Class of 2024.
Marianas High School held its commencement exercises on campus, Wednesday, May, 29, 2024.
MHS graduates pose for a photo.
The graduation ceremony was highlighted by a cultural bendision.
MHS Principal Jonathan Aguon, far left.
