Hall High Class of 2017 Instructed to 'Stay Curious' - We-Ha

Hall High Class of 2017 Instructed to ‘Stay Curious’

Published On: June 15, 2017Categories: Schools

Audio By Carbonatix

West Hartford’s Hall High School graduated 378 students on Thursday, June 15.

By Gillian Hixson

“So listen Class of 2017, I think it’s time we have a talk,” Anthony Wasley, science teacher at William H. Hall High School, told the graduates, “I think it’s time you see other teachers.”

“It’s not you, it’s me,” Wasley added, “We can still be friends.”

Though Wasley’s classic break-up comments were meant to be funny, 378 Hall High seniors said goodbye for real to Hall High School on Thursday evening. Though many graduates’ caps were decorated with a logo of their future college or university, each wore the same royal blue gown, a symbol of their shared accomplishment.

Introducing Hall’s Class of 2017, Principal Dan Zittoun applauded the graduates’ ability to “put the group before yourself.” This ability became clear as gusts of wind blew off countless graduates’ white stoles off their shoulders and their peers grabbed, caught, and returned them.

Though the day was a milestone for the graduates, Principal Zittoun explained it was a milestone for him as well. Since Zittoun started as principal for Hall the summer of 2013, this class of graduates was the first group he oversaw all four years.

He, too, came to Hall in 2013, wondering “If the people would be nice” and “What the ‘H’ in William H. Hall High School stands for.” Like the graduates who sat before him, Zittoun’s nerves were eventually calmed.

“The students and staff were definitely nice, and the ‘H’ stands for Hutchins,” Zittoun said. Like the sea of graduates sitting before him, Zittoun celebrated.

The Class of 2017 indeed accomplished a lot in their final year. Zittoun mentioned only a few of many: the return of the Homecoming Dance, the change of the school’s mascot, winning a radio show promotion and having pop star Daya perform at school, Human Rights Day, a State Championship win in Indoor Track and Field, and the continuance of last year’s decision for all graduates to wear blue gowns.

“Take a moment to let that sink in,” Zittoun urged the graduates, “It’s absolutely amazing.”

But, it is not only the big accomplishments that matter, Zittoun added. “The most impressive is what you accomplished every day for the past four years … You put the group before yourself,” he said, “Our generation could take a lesson from the Class of 2017.”

“My job’s been easy,” Zittoun said, “All I had to do is send a few tweets and get out of the way.”

Tom Moore, superintendent of West Hartford Public Schools, continued this line of thinking, stating, “If West Hartford Public Schools was a business that would make you [the graduates] a product. And business is good.”

Moore implored the graduates to surround themselves with those people who “make us stand a little taller, laugh a little louder, smile a little wider, work a little harder, and think a little bit deeper.”

After Moore’s remarks, Dr. Mark Overmyer-Velazquez, Chairperson of the Board of Education, offered three brief stories about “transition and translation.” The son of a Mexican immigrant, Overmyer-Velazquez knew he wanted to keep the Spanish language a main part of his life and incorporate Spanish into the lives of his children.

He described the frustration he faced trying to translate “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” into Spanish on the fly while reading to his child; the vulnerability he felt while sitting at a table of completely foreign food in Jordan; and his work translating between Carlos, a man at a detention center, and his lawyer. In closing, Overmyer-Velazquez urged the Class of 2017 “to serve others through solidarity.”

Zittoun then invited the senior members of Chorale to come up to the stage, where they sang “Standing By.” Each singer got his or her own solo, a chance to sing one last time as a Hall High student.

Student speaker Ethan Hixson gave a succinct yet animated speech about his personal experience at Hall. “I learned how to throw a frisbee 3/4 the length of a football field. Yes, that has nothing to do with school but if I hadn’t come here I would never have learned how,” Hixson said.

He congratulated his class on their accomplishment and told them not to worry. Though they all now must enter the fated “big pond,” they learned more than they think at Hall.

“You might not have learned much from chemistry, you might have hated pre-calc, and let’s be honest who had fun on the SAT?” Hixson remarked. “But regardless of what classes you passed and which ones you failed, you learned something.”

“So when they hand you that coveted piece of paper, the one with a signature on it, don’t look at it as a trash compacted version of your transcript, look at it as personified proof of who you have become,” Hixson concluded.

Hixson was one of Wasley’s 10 students that he had not one, not two, but three times. “Out of 378 I taught 234. That’s 62 percent of the class,” Wasley stated proudly.

Wasley offered his own remarks – “Was-life lessons” he called them. It doesn’t matter what major you pursue in college, Wasley said, “You are all scientists.” All science really is, Wasley assured, is having curiosity.

“Learn how everything you buy in life works. If someone says ‘It’s always like that,’ that is your cue to boldly look.”

He then shared three “moments of wonder” he experienced, instructing the graduates to “be ready for those moments, they often come without warning.”

The first wondrous moment happened when Wasley was “three hours deep into a cave” and squeezing through nine-inch spaces in “basically pajamas, a swimsuit, and a bike helmet with a flashlight duct-taped onto the top.” His caving guide had everyone in the group turn off their headlamps and not talk for 60 seconds.

“I found light in a dark cave,” Wasley said.

The next wondrous moment occurred in a slightly less peaceful place: the hospital when his wife gave birth to their son, Dashiell. Wasley admitted that he and his wife had not read any of the informational books nor had they ever babysat a child before. But, to their surprise, once Dash was born they instinctively knew what to do and how to care for their son.

“Trust your gut. Use your brain,” Wasley said.

The final wondrous moment Wasley experienced was occurring right then and there, as hundreds of pairs of eyes looked back at him.

“Their character has always stayed the same,” Wasley said of the graduates, “They’re goofballs.”

A complete list of graduates from the Hall High School Class of 2017, provided by Hall, follows the photos.

Like what you see here? Click here to subscribe to We-Ha’s newsletter so you’ll always be in the know about what’s happening in West Hartford!