JMCHS Commencement
SALT LAKE CITY — As the doors of Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City opened on May 26, families, friends, students, faculty and staff from Judge Memorial Catholic High School flooded the place with smiles as they waited for the Class of 2019’s commencement ceremony to start.
Patrick Lambert, principal of JMCHS, welcomed everyone to the graduation celebration.
“In this, the 98th year of our remarkable school, we convene to honor the graduating Class of 2019 ... Judge Memorial’s 94th graduating class,” he said.
As the processional “Pomp and Circumstance” by Edward Edgar resonated through the hall, the 156 graduates of the Class of 2019 entered.
Jacob Frausto, student body president, offered the greeting. He thanked all for attending, but particularly welcomed Mark Longe, superintendent of Utah Catholic Schools; Holy Cross Sister Catherine Kamphaus, associate superintendent; Lambert; and Fr. John E. Norman, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School.
“We are grateful to our parents, teachers, coaches and counselors for all they have done for us,” Frausto said, adding that he knows that his classmates, as they go forward, “will take many of the lessons that we have learned from you.”
The salutatorian for the Class of 2019 was Gwendolyn Orme, an honor student who is also one of the 10 First Honor graduates recognized for high achievement in AP and Honors courses.
“Gwen has shown great leadership in her position as president of our Rotary Internationals Interact Club as well as the president for our Environmental Club,” said Lambert as he introduced her.
Before starting her speech, Orme thanked her family members one by one, her voice reflecting lots of tender and caring feelings. Then, changing to a more humorous mood, she said the speech she was going to give wasn’t the one she initially wrote because her original topic, “Make the Most of It,” was too vague, so for inspiration she turned to her “one of my most trusted allies over the past four years” – Google.
She searched Google for “science behind comfort zone.” From among the 106 million results she “read a whopping three of them, and here is what I learned. To maximize learning we have to be outside of our comfort zone 70 percent of the time,” she said.
People out of their comfort zone experience nervousness, anxiety and fear of the unknown, but with work comfort zones can be expanded, Orme said. She challenged her peers to get out of their comfort zones in their endless pursuit for greatness.
“Always try. You may fail, but then you will succeed,” she said. “This exercise might seem painful and it would be easier to just go back to comfort, but we must strive to be better. ... Be uncomfortable. Push yourself through the pain and the fear ... Work harder and love kinder.”
After Orme concluded, the graduates were presented by Cris Sloan, the school’s English department chairman, and Paul Savage, the senior class advisor.
The conferral of diplomas was made by Longe and Lambert, followed by the Rite of Changing of the Tassel.
Lambert introduced the valedictorian address, which Christopher Clyne presented.
“Chris has been an active member of our peer ministry. ... He has logged 248 hours of Christian service hours while at Judge,” Lambert said, adding that Clyne has received academic awards for physics, literature, robotics, drama, science and social studies, and was named a National Merit Finalist.
In his speech, Clyne compared the high school experience to apples: “Judge is an apple. Our time at Judge is an apple. We are all apples,” he said, continuing describing the types of apples with a witty humor to which the audience responded with smiles.
“Judge is reminiscent of apples even in its colors: red and gold, representing the blood, sweat, and tears we’ve poured into high school and the golden reward of success and freedom which we now enjoy,” he added.
During their years at Judge, “we were fortunate enough to have a few kindly farmers looking after us – our parents, teachers, and mentors who made sure we had optimal growing conditions. We were challenged, stimulated, and encouraged to be better people,” he said.
He and his peers fought hard to get where they were that day, and they grew together the whole way, he said.
Now fully ripened,we are ready to begin the next stage of earthly existence,” he said.
“Wherever we go, we’re apples from the great Judge orchard, and that means we’re different. We are nourishing, crisp, abundantly selfless, and a formidable force for good,” he added.
In his comments, Lambert asked the graduates that, as they go forward in life, to have faith in themselves and the one who watches over all. “As we move through this juncture you each enter a stage of uncertainty. Please don’t be discouraged if you feel afraid. Of course you will feel afraid. Embrace that nervousness to sharpen your senses. ... Know that getting far enough away from shore will strengthen your skills and expand your horizons. No one here is expected to be perfect. May we dampen that voice in the back of head that beats us down when we are not perfect. Being perfect means not taking risks. We are not expected to be perfect but instead we can be brave. We can be resilient, we can be loving, we can be kind, we can be malleable, we can be supportive, we can let our light shine, we can inspire, we can lead.”
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