Pomp and circumstance

Two sets of students caught my attention this week. The first were the recipients of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce Education Scholarship Fund. A formidable and impressive lot, they were four of 20 applicants who passed muster in a comprehensive qualifying competition that included academic record, extra-curricular involvement, an essay, and a 90-minute interview.

In a day that saw a crisp, clear and engaging presentation from Rear Adm. Arthur Johnson of the U.S. Navy to the SCC general membership, SCC members were regaled with a parade of talents that represented the cream of the crop in this year’s island graduating class.

In a display of entertaining introductions for each of the awardees, Scott Norman, SCC education committee chair, and BOE representative from the private schools, and other members of the committee, relished and executed their roles with an incredible exhibition of erudition, wit and humor. Matching the obvious intelligence and sophistication of the awardees they were introducing, the presenters more than held their own in equal measure.

Of the recipients, there is the budding writer and consummate reader Carla Maree D. Calvo of the Marianas Baptist Academy. Also, there is the amateur archaeologist and noted thespian James H. Arriola of Northern Marianas Academy. From the same Academy but bridging into the Associates program of the College is the “amazing” 16-year old NMC graduating class co-valedictorian and accomplished athlete Laura Chaves-Saiki of the exotic Iberian pedigree. Finally, there is the scholar and steely survivor-of-a-close-friend’s suicide Julia Lizama of Mount Carmel High School. Just by who they have become, they make their parents proud. By what they intend to be, the whole community cheers for their success, deeply wishing that their tribe multiply fast.

Earlier during the day, in an activity where I was personally involved as one of four teachers, a second set, sixth graders from the San Vicente Elementary School, marched to receive their certificates of completion and, for some, special awards of recognition. In an early morning celebration at the Susupe Multi-Purpose Center, members of the Board of Education, the Commissioner and administrators of the Public School System, and parents/guardians of the students, listened to five speeches that exemplified the school’s claim of being home to “competent communicators.”

Laila Younis-Boyer, general manager of the Marianas Variety, and Principal’s awardee of Class 1987, led the speech-making as the keynote and guest speaker for the occasion. This year’s Principal’s awardee, Judy Ann Tiples, followed by rousing the students to recite once more the words accompanying the school’s CANARIES. Commissioner Rita Inos presented her office’s award to Christian Cruz, whose cadenced and spirited speech made one of the teacher’s aide siddle up to this writer and say: “Boy, have we got here one MLK Jr. in the making!” On behalf of the Class of 2004, John Villagomez reminisced about the past year, and Nathan Taitano, reluctantly yet gleefully, bid each other, their teachers and mentors, “Farewell.”

Two weeks before, the class embarked on a four-day retreat. The class walked to and cleaned up a portion of their adopted beach in nearby Lau Lau Bay. They visited the Museum, the Marianas Variety newsroom and print shop, Sugar King Park, and lunched with the man’amko. They spent a day immersed among the flowers and fruits of the Saipan Botanical Garden. On the last day, they planted grass on a strip of parking lot by Beach Road as part of a joint environmental project of the public, private and voluntary sectors. Icing on the cake was a bowling game plus a cheeseburger lunch treat.

Twenty-five percent of the class did not participate in the off-campus activities of the retreat. For various behavioral infractions, deficiencies in home and class work, repeated failure to follow teacher’s instructions, and just being a perceived threat to the general safety of the class while in minimally supervised public domain, kept these ragtag of incredible ‘selfhoods’ at bay on campus.

One of them is jokingly referred to by members of the lower grades as “Mr. Myra.” Sporting a back-facing cap, Myra is more often than not, noted for lumbering tomboyishly down the hallway bullying boys and intimidating the girls. Relishing a defiant and rebellious reputation, she had on various occasions derailed the smooth flow of direct instructions in not a few of her classes. Having been excluded, we expected her and her colleagues to be resentful the rest of the year.

On ‘graduation’ day, when the students were asked to come attired white-top, black-bottomed, Myra showed up with a floor length flower-patterned brightly colored chiffon dress, complete with a shoulder draping scarf and a coiffured hair. On heels, she cat-walked her way to her completion certificate with a wide beaming smile of a cat that swallowed the canary! The teachers watched a miracle in motion, a transformation beyond our imaginings. The rest of the Canaries were stunned in awe.

The teachers were clear that with the admiration for the Judy Anns, Christians, Johns and Nathans, and their excellencies and assessed achievements and accomplishments, and the Myras with their often grandiose acts of dissent, they are both equally cared for and loved. And their tribes will surely show up again in next year’s upcoming batch.

To all teachers of graduating classes, a toast. See you back to the grind in a month and a half.