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News Feature

Blue Hill
Originally published in The Weekly Packet, June 21, 2012
Blue Hill Harbor School graduates four in class of 2012

by Anne Berleant

Blue Hill Harbor School Principal Roger Brainerd opened commencement on June 16 at the school by remembering a Foxcroft Academy graduate he taught, a U.S. Army captain whose Apache helicopter went down in Afghanistan this week.

We should “celebrate the beginning, middle and end” of life, Brainerd said, and the graduates’ “passage to the next part of life.”

Hannah Marie Arseneau, Brittany Anne Courtot, Johanna Nichole McKay and Araya Kilday Livingston Tegan all received high school diplomas after a ceremony that celebrated their personalities and achievements at the Blue Hill Harbor School and included more than a few tears.

Johanna “grew, explored and faced some tough things,” said lead advisor Andrew Dillon, and she also brought the chairs for the graduation ceremony in her pick up.

“It’s awesome to be able to count on a student,” he said, and after a beat, added, “with a pickup truck.”

Araya was “always looking for new ways of doing things,” Dillon said. Brittany is “hard-working [and] conscientious.” Hannah Marie’s fashion designs are “attuned to the people she imagined the designs for.”

The students asked science teacher Ron Stanko to be guest speaker at the commencement—“a tough ticket,” said board chairman Ed Volkwein.

Stanko applied the three basic laws of science to life: everything is connected to everything else; everything has to go somewhere; and there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

“There’s a price to be paid for everything we do,” Stanko said, and invoked a fourth life rule worth following: pray.

“The great thing about teaching here is learning from students,” Stanko said.

Board chair Ed Volkwein addressed the graduates: “Your time has arrived. We have a pretty messy world you’ll have to deal with. We’re counting on you to use what you’ve learned here.”

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