Alexandra Martinakova Photos
No bad blood between Valedictorian Cassandra Clermont and Salutatorian Eva Berthelot-Hill, who also happen to be best friends.
Dance department grad Alondra Rodriguez Maysonet poses with her family, who brought custom magazine covers with her photo.
Cassandra Clermont and Eva Berthelot-Hill led their graduating class on Monday not only as the two top-performing students, but also as best friends.
“I’m really happy and really satisfied,” Berthelot-Hill said about her and Clermont being the salutatorian and valedictorian, respectively, of Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, which saw 116 students walk the Shubert Theatre’s stage on Monday. “I think I’m extra excited for this because we are best friends.”
“One and two together, it’s nice to have someone next to me on the stage,” Clermont added. “The energy was great.”
Both girls graduated from Co-op’s Creative Writing department and, as displayed on their grad caps, have an exciting future in front of them — as Clermont is set to head to Cornell University and Berthelot-Hill to the University of Connecticut.
It is no surprise that at an arts high school like Co-op, the graduating students went all out in decorating their caps. Many highlighted their future universities, while some featured age-old classics like, “That’s all, folks,” or “About that time.”
Others featured something more personal — like Isabella Galik’s cap, which included a collage of her favorite photos from the last four years of high school. She included the words, “Don’t be a stranger.”
“Just so people stay in contact, stay in touch,” Galik said and in that same spirit shouted after a passing classmate who said that they’ll never see each other again: “That’s not true, we’ll hang out!”
Co-op focuses on five different art majors: Creative Writing, Dance, Music, Theater and Visual Arts.
Clermont and Berthelot-Hill stood on the stage in Shubert Theatre at 247 College St. — just down the road from the building they spent the last four years in — and addressed their fellow graduates and guests, who filled out the theater hall in a sea of flowers, face-cutouts and balloons.
“Here’s the thing,” Berthelot-Hill said as the salutatorian. “Once you step out into the future, whether that’s college, workforce or the military, you will start a new chapter. One where it doesn’t matter if you’re No. 2 or No. 102. What will matter is your drive. If you go out and find something to do that you’ll love and that you’ll be good at, you’ll be living a better life than a lot of people.”
Their speeches followed the welcome of Principal Paul Camarco and came before many other speakers, including the commencement speaker, former Division I athlete and the founder of MooreMotivation Podcast, Kendrick Moore.
“This is a pivotal milestone,” Moore emphasized to the new graduates. “When it’s time to show up, it’s time to show up. Success don’t care about how you feel. Your discipline needs to be taken to another level. If you think you’ve made sacrifices in high school, everything becomes exponentially harder. One false move after you get that diploma can ruin everything. The difference between good and great is how you handle your responsibilities.”
And so after many motivational words were spoken, it was time for the graduating class to walk across the stage and into the next chapter of their lives.
Cheers erupted as students walked up one by one, many embracing their now-former teachers or, in the case of one student, setting off a confetti cannon and giving the auditorium a scare.
But as graduations often go, it was a bittersweet moment, not just for the proud parents of the graduates but also for the teachers who have spent the last four years watching the now-young adults grow and mature.
Harriett Alfred, who presented the Choral department graduates and plans to retire after 38 years of teaching in New Haven due to the sunsetting of teachers union contract healthcare benefits for veteran educators like herself, sang her students out with Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time” as part of her last words to them.
She retired alongside her colleague Patrick Smith, and the two of them represented the Band department as “two extraordinary members of our staff and individuals who have shaped the very soul of our school through artistry, mentorship and decades of service,” according to Camarco.
And so the 2025 graduates walked out of the Shubert Theatre, now with diplomas in their hands and bright futures ahead. Because like almost every speaker Monday said, this is just the beginning.
Harriett Alfred sings her last graduating class of students out before she retires at the end of the year.
Principal Paul Camarco addresses the graduating class.
Speaker Kendrick Moore explains his strong real words to the graduating class: "Preparing you to compete with every other student in the nation."
Visual Arts graduate Isabella Galik poses with her nostalgic grad cap.