EAST HAVEN

Before an enthusiastic crowd, the members of the East Haven High School (EHHS) Class of 2024 received their diplomas inside the school’s gymnasium on June 14. At the ceremony, the top-ranking members of the class spoke about the importance of friendship and establishing a support system to endure the difficulties in life, in addition to reflecting on the community-centric legacy they are leaving behind in town.

The first to speak was Valerie Sortito, the president for the EHHS Class of 2024. Like the two other graduate speakers, Sortito thanked family, friends, fellow students, and the East Haven school district’s faculty for their support. Sortito felt that through the “720 days of our lives together at East Haven High School” and all the lessons they learned in their classes, “the most important thing is that between learning, we built friendships and relationships that entangled laughter, crying, happiness, and memories that will last a lifetime.”

Sortito’s speech set the tone for the graduates’ speeches, all three of which contained themes of support, friendship, and lifelong connections—things which have led to success and will continue to lead to success in their futures. This is the legacy and identity which the Class of 2024 has been creating since elementary school, said Sortito.

“Despite our differences, we continued to build relationships, even though we did not come from the same culture or have the same lunch wave as each other. It was not the same uniform that we all wore that made us alike. It was our willingness to maintain our friendships that pushed us to continue our journeys together,” said Sortito.

Sortito said the relationships they built with each other were key to ensuring success in athletics and bolstering their “competitive nature as a class,” something which she said “has helped throughout the years as we pushed ourselves to become better teammates and students on and off the field, leading our school to many successful seasons, such as the boys’ hockey team making it to the final championship game and many other teams making it to states.”

Sortito said that while leaving EHHS entails a bittersweet understanding, she added that every graduate should be proud of the community-centric legacy which they created alongside their closest cohorts.

“Our class is special as it has been one of the most involved student groups in the school’s history, and our contributions and dedication to making our school a stronger community will influence other classes to come. Through creating our class identity, we created an everlasting legacy,” she said.

Salutatorian Melania Korenovsky spoke openly about how her final year of high school turned out to not be “a year of bliss,” given some losses and difficulties which she has faced in her personal life.

However, Korenovsky went on to say that, “Through reflecting on this loss and grieving, I realized the importance of our school community.”

“School, no matter our opinion of it, keeps us grounded. It gives us consistency and an ability to feel like we have somewhere to go to, at least as a distraction, from the harsh realities of the world,” said Korenovsky.

Despite the struggles which many of her fellow classmates face in their private and academic lives, Korenovsky said that, “East Haven High School has become our home for the past four years” and a place which “welcomes us with the same open arms” every day.

Korenovsky reflected on this aspect of attending EHHS as someone of Ukrainian heritage.

“As a proud Ukrainian, after the war began in Ukraine, I felt an overwhelming amount of support from the school. The school community knew how I had been struggling and worried for all Ukrainians during this scary time, so groups of us came together to host drives and fundraisers at the school. This made me really proud to be a part of the East Haven High school community,” she said.

Korenovsky reminded her fellow graduates that while “there are guarantees of struggles and tribulations” in the future, that embracing people of different backgrounds also guarantees a continued sense of community in the future. Korenovsky said this is something she learned as a result of her tenure at EHHS.

“Putting aside our worries and differences, we have come here today for one reason,” she said. “Although our journeys after graduation may all be different, taking in this present moment is important because this experience we have all had here together at East Haven High School will live with us forever. This school community, for me, and I’m sure for others, helped us navigate the difficulties of life. I am forever grateful to East Haven High School for making me the person I am today!”

The last person to speak was Valedictorian Natalie Brown, who told her fellow graduates about the importance of asking for help since that can only guarantee success for a person in the future. This is an integral aspect of life which Brown learned during her time at EHHS.

“I was always ready to acknowledge that I needed help and never stopped myself from asking for it. If I didn’t understand a particular word, math problem, or passage, I would ask a million questions until I understood the material fully,” Brown said. “If my time at East Haven Public Schools has taught me anything, it is to ask the questions, no matter how small or silly you think they are, to admit when you are struggling, and to find people you can trust who will always support you without bringing you down.”

To find that trust, Brown expressed how important it is to surround oneself with “your people” upon whom you can constantly rely for support in the most difficult of times. She remembers at the beginning of her high school career how, “I knew that I had to continue building my support system,” eventually finding her people. While she recognized that in a few short months those same people “will all go our separate ways,” Brown added that, “We will always have the connections and memories we have made in these last four, or even up to 12 years, with the different groups of people we have found as our support systems.”

“Each of these groups that we found over time have helped mold us into who we are today as graduates, as adults even, having shaped us into the people we will be for the rest of our lives,” she continued.

Brown asked her classmates to continue seeking a helpful support system for the rest of their lives, no matter where those lives take them after graduation.