Saint Francis graduates its final class

 

Commencement ceremony at Blaisdell acknowledges school’s closure while celebrating seniors

By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald

For their graduation song, the Saint Francis School Class of 2019 chose One Direction’s “History.”

It was appropriate for members of a senior class about to go their separate ways. But the catchy pop tune also took on a larger significance when seen as the choice of the last graduating class of the 95-year-old Manoa Catholic school.

The pre-kindergarten through twelfth-grade school, founded and run by the Sisters of Saint Francis of the Neumann Communities, is closing at the end of this academic year due to financial issues.

“No, they don’t teach you this in school,” sang the 69 Saint Francis graduates on May 25 as they stood on four rows of risers onstage at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall, halfway through their hour-long ceremony. “Now my heart’s breaking and I don’t know what to do. / Thought we were going strong. / Thought we were holding on.”

The audience of about 1,300 watched as the seniors swayed side to side, snapping their fingers in sync to the song.

“This is not the end. / We can make it you know it, you know / You and me got a whole lot of history,” chanted the graduates as they punctuated the last words of each chorus by lifting their linked hands in the air. “So don’t let it go, we can make some more, we can live forever.”

“The senior class selected the song among several nominations because they felt that it not only represented their class event, but also what everyone at Saint Francis was feeling after the closure was announced,” wrote Saint Francis teacher Carlyle Cameron in an email explaining the song choice. “They wanted to honor that as well. The lyrics recognize a shared past that will live on.”

Short and (bitter)sweet

A little earlier in the evening’s commencement exercises the same students processed on stage to Pachelbel’s “Canon in D.” The first seniors out got a spontaneous round of applause from the audience, who seemed to be noting the significance of this last graduation ceremony.

The graduates wore light blue robes with white fabric leis, the school colors. Many of the audience members also sported blue and white attire to show their school spirit.

The ceremony proceeded as most high school graduations do. There was no guest speaker and no extra speeches though there was an acknowledgment of the school’s closure, either directly or indirectly, in the invocation, head of school’s welcome and student addresses.

Casey Asato, who is in both his first and last year as the head of Saint Francis, gave a welcome address to the “87th and final commencement ceremony of Saint Francis School,” focusing his talk on a mix of inspirational figures and philosophies from the East, the West, and One Direction.

In her salutatorian address, Padilla said she knew she was lucky to be graduating and not one of the students in eleventh grade on down who will be switching to a new school next year. All the same, she was still sad.

“I’m happy to be graduating and moving on but unlike other graduating seniors, there’s no school to come back and visit,” Padilla said.

Toward the end of his speech, valedictorian Justin Loi asked his classmates to turn to their left and right and “thank your classmates for being a part of what made Saint Francis great.”

Most of the local Franciscan Sisters who live at the Manoa campus and have previously staffed the school filled the left to the middle part of the front row.

Local Franciscan regional minister Sister William Marie Eleniki was among them. She said she thought the graduation was well done.

“It was inspiring just to see the youth,” she said immediately after the ceremony. “I guess what I’m looking at is the real Franciscan spirit of how they were relating to the future and the present and in spite of everything they seemed to be doing a great job.”

Sister William Marie said she was particularly touched that the class salutatorian, Kelsey Padilla, had gone to Saint Francis from kindergarten through 12th grade. “You could tell her mannerism of feeling at home and part of the school her whole life.”

After the ceremony, well-wishers surrounded the individual graduates in the nearby exhibition hall, stacking lei upon lei on the new Saint Francis alumni. Blown up portraits of the graduates – some with flashing lightbulbs surrounding the images – helped family and friends find their senior amidst the crowds.

One graduate had her own personal drummers and a large headpiece made of dollar bills. Another slightly forlorn looking student sat just outside the hall on a plywood throne constructed by his well-meaning family, waiting for the next smartphone picture to be snapped. The sporadic pop of confetti and the loud hum of excited well-wishers continued for over a half hour.

Any sadness over the school’s closure seemed to be temporarily forgotten in all the merriment.