Proud, grateful and ambitious: Graduates launch life after Sanford High School

SANFORD, Maine — Today, Sanford High School. Tomorrow, the United States Senate.

That is the goal Devon Whyte is determined to pursue, now that he and his fellow graduates of Sanford High School’s Class of 2023 are launching their futures.

“I want to help expand opportunities for groups who are considered minorities,” Whyte said. “I want to give them a voice.”

Whyte will study political science at the University of Southern Maine this fall. He shared his plans moments before he and his peers left the SHS gymnasium and marched to Alumni Stadium, where families and friends were waiting for their graduation ceremony to begin on Wednesday, June 7.

Graduating from high school felt bittersweet, Whyte said. He added that he was grateful for the opportunities that the Sanford community had offered him.

“I’m going to miss the efforts and acceptance of all the students and faculty,” he said. “They were very welcoming.”

Class of 2023: Sanford High School names Top 10 students

The school held the commencement outdoors, despite a persistent light shower that dampened caps and gowns, but not spirits. Indeed, this is the class that persevered through a historic, two-year pandemic and a frightening active-shooter swatting scare last November. What’s a little rain?

“Look at you now,” Principal Matthew Petermann said to the graduates, once they were seated for the ceremony. “We hope you will recall fondly your time at Sanford High School. We can’t wait to see what you accomplish.”

A few of the graduates offered a glimpse of what those accomplishments may turn out to be, if all goes according to their plans.

Summer Clough, for example, said she already has an interview lined up to become a medical assistant in the cardiology department at Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford.

Before the commencement ceremony, Clough and fellow graduate Danien Lirette gamely posed for a picture in front of the giant “2023” that stood in front of the entrance of the Sanford Performing Arts Center on campus.

Asked how she felt on her big night, Clough said she was proud.

“I feel like I’ve been through a lot,” she said. “I made it.”

Clough said she made her education at Sanford High School her priority.

“It paid off,” she said. “Now I’m able to walk across the stage and get my diploma – with honors!”

Lirette said he wants to become a carpenter, something he feels prepared to pursue thanks to the education he received at Sanford Regional Technical Center.

“That really gave me the knowledge that a college would, really,” he said.

Lirette said his teacher, Troy Hathaway, was a good influence on him and his classmates.

“We built a whole house from the ground up,” Lirette said. “Sixteen students and one teacher.”

Quite a step up from the birdhouses Lirette said he used to build when he was ten years old.

During the ceremony, valedictorian Samantha Phillips said in her address that she and her peers had arrived at an intersection together, after taking all their own turns and routes to get to their graduation night.

“At this stoplight, we must consider the roads that brought us here and appreciate them for what they are,” she said. “Looking forward, we must contemplate what roads we wish to travel, and travel them wholly focused.”

In her speech, salutatorian Hannah Baker urged her peers to take everything they have learned as high school students and figure out what it means to them to be a person in a broader sense.

“Growing up doesn’t stop when we graduate,” Baker said. “We will be forever changing, but I challenge you to take what you have learned from high school and improve our world.”

Sanford High School Class of 2023

Joseph Abrams

John-Paul B. Alexandre

Faith Marie Allen

Dominick J. Antonelli

Jessica L. Armstrong

Arsyn Badger

Hannah Katherine Baker

Madison Baltzey-Bridges

Lauren Bancroft

Cameron G. Barker

John Richard Beaupre II

Jared Bennett

Brooke I. Berren

Sydney V. Bill

James Blood

Trystin Elisabeth Bodwell

Jordyn Elexis Bolduc

Isabella J. Bond

Lily J. Bossom

Elysia D. Boudreau

Aberdeen Reese Brickett

Austin D. Briggs

Ethan D. Brown

Hannah Brown

Zachary Brown

Billi M. Bruno

Adrian Bucklin

Josiah Bugbee

Brandon Cabana

Sailor Chasse

Sebastian M. Cheney

Jocelyn Civiello

Summer Clough

Kaiden Cole

Audrey Coleman

Eli Coleman

Isaac J. Colón

Alexander W. Cookson

Rosa Cordero

Ana G. Cote

Connor Cote

Keeghan E. Cote

Aaron Crawford

Ella B. Daskoski

Mia Day

Kyle Joseph Demers

Gabriel S. Denbow

Anastasia Dennis

Colby P. Desrochers

Lydia Marie Doiron

Finnegan Doughty

Riley Doughty

Connor N. Dow

Emma-Jeanne J. Dudley

Andrew Eric Dumond

Kora A. Eckelman

Brady J. Emard

Aliyah M. Engram

Alexis Fairbairn

Daniel Thomas Farrell

Arianna Lynn Ferris

Tyson Scott Fogarty

Caden Fontaine

Cody Fortier

Noah Fougere

Hayden Jensen Fuller

Cody Galeno

Caspar M. Gardner

Andréa E. Garlough

Calvin Garmon

Paige Marie Gauthier

Liam M. Gendron

Nathan Ghedoni

Abbey Gifford

Vanessa Guillemette

Walker Murphy Guilmette

Francis Hagan

Finnley Hamblin

Madison Marie Hannah

Andrew W. Harrison

Gavin Haskell

Juliette Hathaway

Tenley Christine Hawkins

Riley Hebler

Kaylynne Michelle Hessler

Fayth C. Hill

Rhylie C. Hill

Destiny Renee Hoffman

Ronald G. Houle

Emma Ann Howard

Sean Alan Howley

Bradyn Humphrey

George Malcolm Hunt

Kandice A. Huston

Kenneth A. Huston

Domanick L. Ireland

Matthew Janousek

Chris Jojokian

Lily Elizabeth Kallis

Mia T. Kane

Brianna C. Kelin

Marilyn M. Kelley

Brenna Khiev

Ryleigh J. Kimball

Jenna M. Kimball Deforge

Cassandra E. Kingsbury

Kaylee Kingsbury

Vanessa Lamontagne

Madison Kay Lawrence

Tyler George Raymond Lebeuf

Isaac A. Lederer

Benjamin Ledoux

Jarid Lemieux

John L. Libby IV

Kaedin Lichtenstein

Jason A.W.W. Lindahl

Danien Lirette

Abigail Lunny

Gavin Macfarlane-Mccarty

Caylin Ella Marcotte

Zoey Hannah Mariano

Nicholas Martell

Aran Martin

Blair Martin

Mckayla Martin

Joshua R. Martineau

Azline Maurais

Alec May

Jonathan T. Mccoy

Luke M. Mcfarland Jr.

Alex Mcleod

Geoffrey C. Mcnickles

Annabelle E. Mcwilliams

Ryan A. Melendy

Brandon Mitchell

Erik N. Moody

Avery L. Morissette

Joel D. Morrison

Lily A. Morse

Travis Moulton

Robert P. Murphy III

Matthew Murray

Hannah Marie Neer

Shelby Jade Nesbitt

Molly J. Nolette

Ali M. Norris

Alexander Omorogbe

Lily Kerryann Ouellette

Ceili Owens

Arista Amy Pease

Grace Ellie Pease

Cameron Penney

Siarah Crystal Perez

Daniel Allan Perkins

Maya Peterson

Alana C. Pettine

Samantha M. Phillips

Peyton N. Pierce

Nevaeh J. Pitman

Ari Grace Pope

Jonathan David Ilmari Powell

Shawn Puffer

Valerie Grace Putnam

Violet Quinn

Austin T. Randall

Savannah Raymond

Cole Remick

Mandy Isabella Rivera

Gavin Robinson

Ella Jade Rodriguez

Cayden M. Rollins

Camden Roux

Lillian Roux

Thomas Ryan

Jazmin May Santamore

Grady L. Savatakis

Emily R. Schofield

Alexander T. Sevigny

Madison Dionne Sheppard

Mckenna Shoreman-Olivari

Oliver Sigouin

October Evelyn Rose Silva

Gavin A. Smith

Grace Smith

Lex Smith

Jesse Smith

Sean Smith

Makenzie S. Soderlund

Riley St. Jean

Hannah Stevens

Lakota R. Stevens

Sadie Mae Sweetser

Miranda Rebecca Tanguay

Daniel Tarbox

Breanna K. Tate

Brady J. Taylor

Zander Taylor

Brady Thistle

Bo A. Thurston

Emerson Tolpin

Isabella Tremblay

Carly Renee Turgeon

Zachary Vaillancourt

Trent A. Vigue

Ava R. Vogel

Bryn Walker

Kaleigh A. Webber

Malakai B. Webber

Dahlia Wechsler

Joshua E. Westgate

Adam Weyland

Robert E. Whelan

Devon D. Whyte

Laci Willette

Brooke Alice Williams

Chase B. Wilson

Jadon Winchell

Harper Wood

Jonah Wood

Angel Zea

Sofey Zuk

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Sanford High School Class of 2023: Ready to take on the world