By VINAYA SAKSENA

WARWICK — With many challenges behind them and more appearing on the horizon in the midst of an economic downturn, Central Falls High School graduates were encouraged by speakers at their commencement ceremony Friday evening to persevere and remember what got them as far as they had come so far.

Principal Elizabeth Legault noted that in addition to the everyday challenges of school and life, the past year had brought some unique challenges, including new graduation requirements, a pair of shootings involving youths from Central Falls and Pawtucket that had affected much of the school’s two most recent graduating classes, and her own arrival at the school mid-year during a reorganization process. Legault and several of the evening’s speakers reminded the students and their families to remember all they had overcome and be proud of it.
Overcoming obstacles was a recurrent theme in Friday’s ceremony, whether it was an ESL (English as a Second Language) student’s successful efforts to make it into a mainstream English class by her senior year- while simultaneously holding a job as a waitress to support herself, or society at large attempting to navigate the economic uncertainties current facing citizens across the nation. In his speech, Class of 2009 Valedictorian Bryant Estrada noted that the name of the local Warriors sports teams held particular significance in times like these.
“It is our time to do something with our lives,” Estrada told his classmates. “Being a warrior means you can accomplish anything. Once a warrior, always a warrior.”
Denise Jenkins of the Rhode Island Foundation noted students should feel comfortable staying in touch with fellow students, teachers and other friends and supporters still attending or working at the high school in the coming years, particularly in light of current economic conditions, as the support network available there could come in handy. Superintendent of Schools Frances Gallo reinforced this sentiment in a speech she offered in both English and Spanish, saying that students should be unafraid to face the future, while simultaneously maintaining an appreciation for that which brought them to where they are today.
“Never forget your roots,” Gallo told the students. “This is your life. Embrace it with hope.”
Salutatorian Guillermo Ronquillo thanked his peers, teachers and others he said had helped him along. He said he had experienced difficulty fitting in at first after moving to Central Falls, noting that he lacked friends in school during his first year there.
“Today, as I look out there, I don’t see any friends,” Ronquillo said, prompting a sudden silence in the audience until he completed his closing statement. “I see family.”
To reinforce some of the points made that evening, Central Falls High School co-Principal Mario Andrade read a short story titled “The Seed,” which told of a young company executive named Jim and several colleagues being informed by a retiring CEO that one of them will be picked to replace him. The CEO gives each of them a seed, and tells them to come back with the resulting plants in a year. A year later, Jim’s plant has not grown at all despite his efforts to nurture it, yet the other candidates come in with large plants or even trees. It is then that the aging CEO reveals that he had given them all dead seeds, and picks Jim as the new CEO due to him being honest enough to come forward with nothing rather than to buy a large healthy plant to give the appearance of “success,” as the other candidates had.
“Be careful what you plant now,” Andrade told the graduates after finishing the story. “It will determine what you reap later.”