Top Tuskers share wisdom and advice with Somers' Class of 2025

SOMERS, N.Y. - Members of Somers High School's Class of 2025 heard words of wisdom and encouragement from this year's valedictorian, salutatorian, and class president at the commencement ceremony on June 25. 

Valedictorian Natalia Tellez

Good evening, esteemed faculty, parents, family, friends, and perhaps most importantly, fellow graduates. My name is Natalia Tellez, and I am truly honored to be here today. I want to thank everyone for being here on this very special moment. It is because of our loved ones, all of you, that we have become the people we are today. I am lucky enough to have a family that represents everything I aspire to embody and become.

Mamá y Papá, Dani y Alex, familia Téllez y familia Calderón, gracias por enseñarme cómo hacer todo en nuestra manera especial. Los quiero mil y son inolvidables para mí desde toda la vida.

To all the families around the world watching the graduation ceremony live right now:

Merci de nous enseigner tout ce qui est vraiment essentiel et grazie per averci instillato un sogni di viaggiare a Québec, Parigi, Switz, e Italia. Foram exemplos de viagens ao estrangeiro para San Sebastián, Valência e Madrid.

The Class of 2025 has celebrated milestones alongside important people in their lives here and across the globe. From Mexico, Ireland, England, Australia, and Brazil to India, Japan, Korea, Hungary, and Albania. Our familial roots trace back to China, the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, and Ethiopia.

Thus, this is a series of thank-you's to the families who led us to this stage—who have been with us on this journey. But more importantly, it's a thank-you for giving us the confidence to continue beyond this stage and for opening our world. No matter what language you speak, no matter where you're from, today is a day of gratitude and happiness.

Thank you for the unconditional support, endless love, and for showing us that our time in high school was about the little moments—the sweet nothings.

Particularly as we are a combination of everyone around us, I am forever appreciative and grateful for those in my life who made me who I am. As I believe that this is precisely what humanity is all about: how people change people.

I can confidently say that after four years in this community, we all have been changed—or changed someone’s life—for the better. Whether it was a teacher, a friend, or a coach, and I think it’s beautiful.

It’s for that reason that it seems quite unreal to me that the day has finally come. We are no longer seniors, but soon-to-be graduates. For me, today is an extremely bittersweet moment. While I look toward my future, and that of all my classmates and friends, with hope and excitement, there’s a part of me that cannot believe our time in high school is coming to an end.

Throughout these four years at Somers, I have experienced countless moments of happiness. There are a multitude of memories—of laughter, jokes, and conversations around the same lunch table with the same group of girls and with the same tennis team. It was something very special, seeing my best friends grow up alongside me.

Perhaps that's why senior year was so bittersweet. It holds many "last firsts," whether they be sport senior nights or mother-daughter trips. As the year progressed, the realization began to settle in, a year from now, we will all be spread across the country.

This reminded me of a Winnie the Pooh quote I read for the first time after my grandfather passed away. My Ottos y Itas, my grandparents, continue to be my biggest role models, so it truly stuck with me. "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

Memories of being a Tusker and that S.O.E., Somers Over Everything, spirit will never leave us. But, while we will forever hold these treasured moments close, may the rest of our lives be filled with new memories and new friendships and how lucky we are to have both.

In fact, what I believe might be the most special thing about graduation is that there is an after. After graduating, we’ll all run to our forever friends and hug with love. Then there’s the after-after graduation—where time passes, as it always does. And before we know it, right before our eyes, the kids we went to elementary school with will have all become successful adults.

As we cross the stage today, we are walking toward our future with endless possibilities and opportunities. And we have now become those who have the ability to make a difference and drive change. We hold the power to lead, inspire, advocate, and, most importantly, to help. We must all realize this and use it to do good. It is crucial to remember what really matters: human rights, equality, and love. Remember: while the world is happening to us, we are also happening to the world.

We must never lose sight of what Billy Joel says in Vienna, "You can't be everything you want to be before your time."

Meaning, everything in life passes, and it happens for a reason. Love life, and life will love you back. C’est la vie, la dolce vita. Lo que será, será y asi es la vida entonces hay que vivir.

Thus, while this may be the end of our time in high school, it is quite simply the beginning of the rest of our lives. There is nothing that cannot be achieved, and everything there for us to succeed. The entire world is opening for us and an overwhelming amount of potential exists. I can hardly wait to see what’s to come for all of us. If we continue being passionate in our beliefs, I know it will be truly and utterly beautiful. Choose to see the future. It looks bright.  It looks exciting, challenging, but fulfilling and worth it. And remember: Once a Tusker, always a Tusker. Congratulations, Class of 2025. We did it! 

Salutatorian Sara Hanford

It is truly an honor to stand here today and speak on behalf of such an incredible class. These past four years have been defined, of course, by learning and hard work - but also by lots of amazing memories. And today, we get to reflect on and celebrate all of that.

Over the years, many of us have become accustomed to hearing the same questions on repeat: What do you want to be when you grow up? Where do you want to go to college? What's your plan? We live in a world that is constantly asking us what comes next- and too often, it ties our value to the future we're building. For a while, I fell into this mindset.

Throughout high school, like many of you, I packed my schedule with AP classes, joined tons of clubs, and ran from one extracurricular to the next. I stepped away from dance thinking that this was merely a distraction from my future. I often sacrificed time with friends and family to study.  And if you were to ask any of my friends, they could probably tell you just how terrible my sleep schedule was and how I basically survived off Celsius.

But, when I look back on high school, I often find myself going through old photos. And what I’ve found is this: my favorite pictures weren't the ones where we were dressed up or perfectly posed. They’re the candids. The ones that are slightly blurry or where we’re caught mid-laugh.

Similarly, my best memories aren’t the big accomplishments or milestones, they're the moments that came in between. They were the spontaneous ice cream runs after a stressful week of school and the football games we looked forward to every Friday night. The team dinners and long run bus rides. The late-night facetime calls to “study” that always ended up in a totally unrelated, yet endless conversation. And the times in which we laughed until we couldn’t breathe. Those snapshots of life - unplanned, imperfect, and entirely real - ended up being the ones that mattered most.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s always important to have goals for ourselves. It's what keeps pushing us forward in life. But in pursuing our dreams, we must remember to slow down and take the picture. To celebrate the small wins. To be present in the life we’re living now—not just the life we’re working towards.

So, I want to thank everyone who has helped frame these memories with me. To our families: thank you for being our biggest support system always. Mom and Dad - your work ethic, resilience, and compassion inspire me more than you know. And my sister, Kate, thank you for always knowing when to lift me up... and when to keep me grounded. To all of our teachers: Thank you for being a source of guidance all of these years both in and out of the classroom. And to all my classmates and friends: Thank you for those in between moments. For filling my scrapbook with the memories that made my time here so special. When I look back through, it’s the candid shots I’ll hold closest to me.

So, as we say our goodbyes for now and turn to the next page of life, remember to pause and capture the beauty of the moment we’re already in. Let's just be present here, on this stage, at this school, in this moment. Congratulations Class of 2025. Thank you.

Class President Sydney Carnow

Right now, we are about to close the first chapter of our lives. After 13 years of memories, we are finally turning the page. So, what better way is there to end this chapter than to take a stroll down memory lane?

For many of us, this chapter began at Primrose Elementary School. When everything depended on being selected as line leader for the day. Our years were full of sitting criss-cross on the rug, listening to stories, and dominating the playground at recess; which for me meant spending weeks being taught how to climb the monkey bars. Not to mention how we mastered delivering and writing letters to our friends across the hall with we-deliver. We even managed to decorate our belongings in style with pencil grips, erasers, and stickers; just to lose them all by the end of the day.

But for others, it could have started at SIS. Where we mastered multiplication in the classroom and box ball at recess. We transformed into competitive athletes once a year during field day to make sure we secured the fastest times in relay races and were the winning team for tug-of-war, found the perfect posters and pens to buy at the book fair with money that was specifically for books, and even dressed up to go back in time on colonial day. And, how could we ever forget the most important event of the year? The SIS birthday party. The event where we played games, got scared in the haunted hallway (or like me you were too scared to even go in), and where we waited three years to be able to enter the party inside the 5th great room, even if when it finally was our turn the fire alarm was pulled, forcing us to evacuate.

Your chapter could have easily started at middle school. Here, we learned how to open our lockers and for the first time ever we walked from class to class. The greatest honor we could have was being the one who knew their friend’s locker code to plan elaborate locker decorations when their birthday rolled around. We attended dances, went on field trips, and even hosted musical performances. And although covid cost us our Washington D.C. trip, it let us be the lucky few to escape frog dissection day and even the chance to memorize our classmates’ ceilings that we stared at for hours over zoom.

Or maybe the beginning or your chapter started at the end, high school. We showed our school spirit as we dressed up for spirit weeks, competed in the pep rally, and attended many football games. Our sports teams excelled this past year as our football, lacrosse, track teams, and more have all gone to states. Members of our grade have traveled near and far for international science competitions, just to show the hard work they poured into their research over the past three years. Many of us excelled on the stage, crafting and performing in multiple plays, musicals, and concerts during their time at the high school. No matter how you look at it, we have made history here in Somers, here in this school.

And now that this chapter has begun to close, we must look back at how we got to where we are and thank those who helped us get here. So, I’d like to thank my family, who have always been so supportive and kind, my friends who were with me every step of the way, our class advisors who did everything and anything to make sure we had the best four years at this school, and especially you; my peers who I have spent 10 months every year with for the last 13 years of my life. With every lesson we have learned and every experience we have gone through, we are ready for the next chapter. No matter what you choose to write next, and no matter where you choose to go, you are prepared for what is next. So, like I have, thank your parents, your friends, and anyone in your life who has gotten you to where you are now. They are the ones who have given you the ability to write your own future and are now the ones who are going to watch you begin the next chapter of your life.

So now, let's turn the final page of this chapter. At this point, I would like to ask all my fellow graduates to please rise and join me in the tassel ceremony symbolizing that we have officially graduated from Somers High School. On the count of three, please join me in moving your tassel from right to left. Ready, one, two, three. Congratulations Class of ‘25!