GN North grads honored at LIU Post

Dan Glaun

The blue-robed graduates of Great Neck North High School took the stage at Long Island University Post’s Tilles Center to applause, as friends and family snapped and the school’s symphonic orchestra – absent its senior members – played “Pomp and Circumstance.”

Student body president Justin Robeny urged his classmates, as they marked the end of their high school careers, to dream big, in a speech that held up four-minute-mile pioneer Roger Bannister as an icon of mental toughness.

“We as students have the potential to accomplish much, and sometimes the only thing holding us back is what we think,” Robeny said. “Follow your dreams and conquer your own mental barriers.

But joy and determination were not the only emotions on display Thursday morning, as principal Bernard Kaplan gave a moving tribute to one of his high school English teachers, John Xavier Lynch.

Kaplan spoke of the good that a great teacher can do for a student before performing a tribute song he said he had been working on for more than three decades since Lynch’s death.

“He was an incredible man and an incredible teacher,” Kaplan said. “I was a student and John believed in me.”

Accompanied by student and faculty, Kaplan strummed guitar and sang the ballad, earning an ovation from the crowd.

In her introduction before Kaplan’s performance, graduating senior Jessica Chanchalasvili thanked Kaplan on behalf of her class.

“Throughout our four years he has been a mentor and role model to us all,” Chanchalasvili said.

Great Neck Public Schools Superintendent Tom Dolan addressed the challenges faced during the past year, including the hardship and school cancellations cause by Hurricane Sandy.

And he urged the graduating class to take two pieces of what he described as contradictory advice – to be aware of and value the present, and to be able to let go and move into the future.

“Live in the moment and transcend the moment,” Dolan said.

“The class of 2013 is to be recognized for what you have accomplished and how you have accomplished it,” Dolan added. “Best of luck as you embark upon a future that is full of promise.

Valedictorian Jayant Sani was recognized with the Alan L. Gleitsman award and fellow graduate Doris Descorbeth won the Genelle Taney award.

The program also featured performances of classical works and arrangements of Beatles songs by the Great Neck North Symphony Orchestra, and songs from STAGES and the Select Singers class of 2013.

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