Monument Mountain Graduates Recognized for Resiliency For the duration of Pandemic / iBerkshires.com


Excellent BARRINGTON, Mass. — Monument Mountain Regional Higher Faculty graduated 113 seniors on Saturday from its soccer field surrounded by mountains and greenery.


The class of 2021 reportedly had a popularity of being “challenging” on entering superior university but immediately broke cost-free from that label and proved the administration wrong.
They in particular defied their poor popularity when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Nevertheless the students’ dwelling and faculty life ended up fully altered by the virus, they persevered by the college 12 months with results.
“Your class stands out in your ability to be resilient to force in advance and proceed to mature,” Berkshire Hills Regional College Superintendent Peter Dillon claimed.
Valedictorian Karina Mahida resolved her and her classmates former reputation and how the course turned it all-around.
“We ended up recognised to be not-so-effectively behaved and also known for breaking a few of the home windows out of center university. To top it all off, the center school experienced to, for the to start with time considering the fact that the school was constructed, mail a letter both warning the significant faculty teachers of our behavior, although also encouraging them to give us the probability,” Mahida explained.
“We have been labeled as one particular of the most hard grades, and that label would presumably continue to be with us for the rest of our higher school practical experience. On the other hand, as shortly as large university commenced, we allow go of that label, we have been able to break absent from the standard patterns we ended up accustomed to.”
Mahida stated the students’ worlds modified ahead of senior yr along with anyone else’s. On March 13, 2020, they went from lunchtime conversations and walks about the faculty to be thoroughly remote in considerably less than a day.
In the earlier calendar year, she stated, she and her friends were tasked with preventing for basic human legal rights, women’s legal rights, and addressing excessive political polarization of the state, nevertheless they nevertheless showed up to course.
“A school year that we considered was going to be total of soccer online games, school dances and senior skip times turned into a yr of seeking to stay clear of virus and attending classes by a screen, but what was so surprising and inspiring was the way our course specially dealt with it,” she stated.
“The supposedly ‘bad class’ nonetheless showed up every and every working day, and did the hard get the job done necessary of them. We confirmed up with fantastic religion and had been ready to make the best out of this yr, no make a difference how demanding it was for us. We have missing almost everything in this previous year. And we continue to believed in ourselves adequate to not only present up for faculty, but also implement for school, put together for the workforce, and stop our closing 12 months of higher college with pleasure.”
Mahida reported the team went from being a “dreaded group of learners” to staying celebrated by having the tasks that arrive with age, making and preserving relationships that authorized them to discover from one particular an additional, and discovering that they are able of achievements, contentment, and self-assurance.
Mahida wil be attending Harvard College, wherever she options to pursue biology, philosophy, and pre-med. She is a member of the Nationwide Honor Society and in her time at Monument Mountain was a leader in the school’s restorative justice do the job, pupil governing administration, support groups, and on athletic teams.
Salutatorian Abigail Zeik also spoke on the class’s resiliency, relating it to her experience as a violinist.
“Freshman, sophomore, and junior 12 months, I performed for auditions for the All-Point out Orchestra and was achieved with rightful rejections. This calendar year, I desired to adjust that. I feel I deserved a reward for my attempts but I nevertheless came up a few details small of acceptance, and I was devastated, emotion like I experienced operate the major fool’s errand in my existence,” she stated, referencing “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“I desired to stop participating in the violin, even so, I realized a little something a couple of weeks later, ruining my final option to engage in on stage was unpleasant. But it taught me a whole lot about my weaknesses as a musician. It forced me to increase technically and served me comprehend what I lacked emotionally. A lot less than a month soon after I swore that I would hardly ever enjoy once more, I picked out my instrument.”
Zeik mentioned she and her classmates have all run fool’s errands or nonsense undertakings this 12 months. Even with the risks posed by common hurdles they continued to do the job, confirmed up to faculty, and manufactured this yr as fulfilling as doable despite the “ever-current stress they would drop.”
She described her course as brilliant, proficient, and formidable.
“These previous number of several years have been an outstanding journey critical to the growth of our characters and the value of our pleasure no subject how your personalized achievements may perhaps vary from the classmate sitting down subsequent to you,” She concluded.
Zeik is also a Nationwide Honors Modern society member and served as course president. She plays 1st violin and participates in the All-Western Massachusetts District Orchestra each individual 12 months as properly as winning a National Orchestra Award.
She will show up at the University of Connecticut in which she strategies to main in organic sciences or biochemistry.
Principal Kristina Farina thanked the learners and family members for their patience and adaptability by this markedly difficult calendar year.
“Recall this is not an stop but a beginning,” she reported.
University Committee Chairman Stephen Bannon also tackled the graduates, instructing them to glance at the campus —which rated nationally as one particular of the most lovely high school campuses in The usa — and get in the elegance of their home for the past 4 yrs.

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