exercises on Saturday which conferred diplomas to 213 students.
Bermudes, this year’s Board of Education awardee, is the daughter of attorney Jose Bermudes and Dolores Bermudes.
The recipient of numerous special awards and recognitions, Kristina Bermudes was also awarded the Robert Byrd Scholarship and the Joeten Foundation Scholarship grants.
She will pursue her college education in the University of California where she plans to study pre-medicine.
“The feeling is very surreal and excited because I’ve always wanted this in my life and those days of working and praying have finally paid off,” she told Variety.
She said it’s an honor to lead the 213 graduates of the oldest high school on island.
She said it is an honor to dedicate her achievements to her father, who was also his high school’s top graduate.
“I am so happy to have this honor as a gift to him,” she said.
In her valedictory address, Bermudes said: “As high school students, there is only so much we can do, so much we can say, and so much we can influence. We all did not have the power that we hold within our hands at this moment. As high school graduates, we are entering a society that no longer sees us as children nor will be treated as such. We are now equals. After this ceremony, we can cause change; change headlines, change traditions, and change mistakes…. Ware not radicals nor heretics, but the consequences of the world today. Whether or not we like it, we are the heirs to the world outside these doors, and whether we like it or not…that world never ceases to exist unless we make change imminent.”
This year’s salutatorian — Ann Rochell Ermitanio — is the daughter of Mercy and Edward Ermitanio.
The commissioner’s awardee will further her college education in Amaeri University in Atlanta.
She wants to study medicine and serve the Commonwealth Health Center in the future.
“It feels great to accomplish something in life!” she said, adding that she will forever “hold on to the promise of the new generation to effect change on the lives of the CNMI people.”
Ermitanio was also named the recipient of the Mayor’s Service Award and several academic recognitions including in math, science and language arts.
The recipient of the Governor’s Award was Amada T. Rabauliman; the Principal’s Award went to Edgardo Macabalo Jr.; while the MHS Alumni Award went to Andrew Benavente.
The top 10 students were Bermudes, Ermitanio, Bryan T. Demapan, Eugene F. Solomon, Maria Agnes Constante, Syrille D. Manacop, Joy Donato, Chellah Ann Sablan, Rachel Ashley P. Reyes, and Josefa Carmen Untalan.
The event was keynoted by Stellar Marianas president and Marianas Variety general manager Laila Y. Boyer.
