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BY MEGHAN V. MALLOY
Staff Writer 06/07/2009

enlarge Staff Photo by Joe Phelan

GATEWAY TO THE FUTURE: Loren Wright, left, gets a hug after she gave her son, Nate Mitchell, his diploma during Kents Hill School commencement exercises on Saturday morning at the school in Readfield. It is a school tradition that staff members or former staff members such as Wright come up and give the diploma to their relatives.

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The students are always led to their seats in pairs by marshals who use batons indicating when each row can stand to receive their diplomas. Graduates wear robes in school colors -- the girls, often linking arms, in white; the boys in maroon. And at the end of the ceremony, it is tradition for the faculty to form a long line and personally greet and congratulate each graduate.

While tradition remains a foundation, each class, including the Kents Hill class of 2009, makes its own impression and passes along its own message at graduation. This year, student-elected speaker Adeolu Odimayo urged his classmates to exert tolerance and use an open mind as the future takes them down different roads.

"There are lessons of tolerance all around us," said Odimayo, an Augusta native who will attend Duke University this fall. "With attempts to improve U.S. relations with the international community, particularly those in the Muslim world, and issues of discrimination concerning minorities and gay rights, this simple concept of respecting others is becoming increasingly important."

Under an unblemished sapphire sky, Odimayo and his fellow 64 seniors were awarded their high school diplomas from Kents Hill School.

Saturday marked the 185th commencement exercises for the school, which often draws students throughout the United States and from the furthest corners of the globe.

The diversity of this small school has already started to help the class of 2009 achieve a sense of tolerance before heading out in the world, Odimayo said, quoting Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Herschel, adding the school fosters "a loyalty to one's own tradition and reverence of the traditions of others."

Before diplomas were handed out, four students were given school awards:

* Lois Masterman Award -- Maryke Moreau;

* Class of 1913 Award -- Patrick Englehardt;

* Luther and Lydia Sampson Award -- Devon Huntley;

* Knowles Prize -- Hyung Jin Yoo.

The members of the class of 2009 also were encouraged to stay true to themselves while continuing to exert tolerance as they venture into the world by commencement speaker Gregory W. Powell, chief executive officer and president of Dexter Enterprises, Inc. and chair of the Harold Alfond Foundation.

"Your experience here and your accomplishments are what we celebrate today," Powell said. "We also celebrate the promise your future: The promise that you will make a difference in the days and years to come, and with that promise, you face the hope of what you, as men and women of principle, will do in your life."

Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811, ext. 431

mmalloy@centralmaine.com

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