Hillhouse Grads Triumph Over Pandemic

Although their past four years were nothing like High School Musical, Hillhouse’s Class of 2022 pushed through to the finish line — and celebrated the fact that they could celebrate together in person. 

The high school’s 163rd commencement was celebrated Wednesday evening with 190 graduates. The graduating class made it a day to remember as some walked, others cried, and most danced across the stage on Bowen Field. 

The students were sent off with words of encouragement, inspiration, and doses of reality from their fellow classmates, school leaders, and keynote speaker Keisha Redd-Hannans, NHPS assistant superintendent for instructional leadership. 

Speakers discussed the perseverance and resilience of a graduating class that was given only two full school years of full in-person learning, due to the Covid pandemic.

The class started their high school careers in 2018 – 2019 like any other pre-pandemic school year. Then were hit with the pandemic and required to shift to remote learning for much of their sophomore and junior years . 

Students and families cherished the fact that the Wednesday commencement was able to happen in-person. 

Graduate Jaday Ogman-Howard, 17, hadn’t been sure she’d live to walk across the stage. Jaday suffers from Osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease). She missed out on her ​“High School Musical experience” and much of the fun of teenage years because both the pandemic and her brittle bone disease, she said. She has had to miss months of school at times due to being hospitalized with painful tumors and bone injuries. 

“I thought coming back to school this year would finally be amazing, but I had missed out on so much already and didn’t know most people because of masks and because there were so many new faces,” she said. 

Jaday spent long days alone in the hospital trying to heal and do her school work during the pandemic because of Covid no-visitors rules.

In unison with her peers Jaday wore a navy blue and white graduation cap and gown Wednesday. She also made sure to make her cap pop with orange and yellow pompoms and a picture of a curly-haired lab coat-wearing superhero. That hero is a dream for her future self. 

Spending time in the hospital for days or months at a time inspired Jaday to one day become a hospital technician. She described herself as a superhero-loving nerd who relates to Supergirl because she is an ​“alien” who often doesn’t fit in. 

Jaday celebrated her graduation with her family, including her 86-year-old great grandmother. She has dreamed of walking across her graduation stage with her great-grandmother watching since she was a child, she said. 

She was also joined by her mother, who she said has strength that motivates her daily. When Jaday was in the hospital, her mother had to miss work frequently to keep her company whenever possible.

Jaday was captain of the school math team and mentored by Hillhouse math teacher Fred Redeaux. She said Redeaux reassured her with the confidence that she was able to lead the team. And she did, making it to a state competition twice over the years. Redeaux also was one of the first connections she made when she started school two months late her freshmen year due to being hospitalized.

Speakers reminded students that they represent the next generation of New Haven, the state, and the country, and to ​“be mindful of our future.” 

Mayor Justin Elicker led students in a back and forth chant of ​“Whose house? Our house!”

Interim Principal Peggy Moore reminded students to thank their families, who supported them throughout the journey, and the school staff. 

Salutatorian Vanessa Olivar celebrated with her classmates that they were relieved of stressful school days, SATs, tear-filled nights while doing homework, teaching their teachers how to use Zoom, and working at home while shooing off younger siblings. 

“We stayed optimistic,” she said. 

Olivar recalled a lecture from her mother that ​“put me in my place” and helped her senior year to refocus on school rather than friends and work. She said she sacrificed partying with her friends and long work days to become more involved with school again this year. She did so for herself and her parents, who both immigrated from Mexico. 

Valedictorian Olivia O’Conner reminded her classmates that their journeys are not about their starts but instead how they finish. ​“We are the future doctors, educators, and hairstylists,” she said. 

She thanked her ​“village” for helping her to become a third-generation graduate despite the struggles posed by the pandemic. 

“Nowhere in High School Musical did it mention Covid,” she said. 

She thanked the school counselors for piecing the school back together when in-person learning returned. 

“You’re a Hillhouse alum, which means you’re practically indestructible and perfect all around,” O’Conner said. 

Senior Class President Brianna West said she learned several life lessons her senior year. She gave departing advice to her peers to ​“hold on tight to people that make you happy and let go of those who don’t.” 

Several students wore caps, shirts, and pins that depicted the faces of lost friends and family who motivated them to reach the Wednesday celebration.

As students heard their names called, they crossed the stage, and the bleachers full of families roared in cheers and blow horns. Families wore matching shirts to celebrate their graduates and held up posters, banners and large letters to celebrate. 

Hannans (pictured), a 1994 Hillhouse alum, deemed the graduating class the best looking class of New Haven Public Schools, with a rhythmic keynote address. 

She offered her own tips of advice to students: Love yourself, be grateful, and don’t compare yourself to others. 

Then she concluded with the ​“ABCs of Advice” which offered a poetic flow from musical artist like Cardi B, Beyonce, Jay Z, Med Thee Stallion, Queen Latifah, Wu-Tang, and Young Thug.