Photo: Caps head skyward at the 2025 Belmont High Commencement

Tara Westover certainly accomplished a lot attending Belmont High School. 

Honored with one of two School Committee awards for outstanding achievement at Belmont High School’s 2025 commencement held under threatening skies on Saturday morning, June 7, Westover undertook the most rigorous course load with a near-perfect GPA; she is a National Merit semifinalist, achieved a perfect score on the SATs, is a talented artist and rock climber, a volunteer with Habitat for Humanities who also found the time to publish an academic paper with her father and brother while being accepted at Harvard College to study maths. Whew!

While she could have spoken on any number of subjects, Westover decided to demonstrate the commonality of each graduate with their classmates in a game of elimination using their upraised hands. They would put down a finger with each “interesting thing” they did during the past four years.

“[Did] you complain when you first heard about the changes to the weekly schedule,” and “if you complained the phone hotels, or, as some people, but definitely not me, have called them phone prisons,” and “if you shopped for prom outfits during class,” she said.

At the end of the challenge, Westover asked the graduates to look around. “I hoped you noticed two things. One, that almost everyone had some fingers down, which highlights our connection, which we have through the school building, to our fellow Marauders, even with the ones we may not have met. And two, that not everyone has all their fingers down,” Westover observed. 

“There’s no one story of a Belmont High graduate,” said Westover, as the most impactful moments were in a new class, speaking to a teacher, or just hanging out with friends. 

“Though our paths converged here … the details of our roots have been different. We’ve each crafted our own unique story,” she said. And with high school ended, “a new chapter is beginning. Life is a collection of moments like the ones you’ve had in high school. Let’s each grab a pen and start writing the next chapter of our stories as Belmont High School graduates.” 

Belmont High Principal Issac Taylor welcomed the approximately 350 graduates and their families and friends to Harris Field. In his address, Taylor spoke of the advancements in global connectivity in the past 200 years through the development of international shipping, which, itself, represents one of the great dichotomies of history.

“[Shipping] led to the murderous eradication of hundreds of cultures and languages,” founded the international slave trade, and accelerated the destruction of natural habitats, “setting the stage for the climate and biodiversity crisis,” said Taylor. And yet it shrank the globe and made it more accessible, while leading to the pooling of human talent and resources, accelerating innovation and learning, resulting in “the mixing of languages and cultures that enrich our world today,” he said.

“Class of 2025, you face similar dichotomies,” said Taylor, with wealth and power flowing from the rapidly changing world ruled by computing, big data, and artificial intelligence. “It is all moving so fast, it’s hard to see what is really happening, how power is shifting, and what direction the world is going.”

Despite an unwritten future, Taylor said this graduating class has demonstrated “exemplify humanity at its best.”

“I observed as you looked after your friends and supported one another, expressing your love and care in dozens of languages. I have watched you celebrate the diversity and multiculturalism of your community through dance and play, through food and dress. I have heard you advocate against injustice and stay true to your beliefs, even when that means standing up to power, and I have taken great pride in your collaboration, courtesy, compassion and kindness,” Taylor said.

Class President Mark Guzelian spoke of the uniqueness of the senior class: the first to sell 587 prom tickets, to have a full senior thesis Capstone exhibition, and to NOT have a senior prank.

“In other words, we’ve not been first at very much … [S]o I went back to brainstorming, what makes the class of 2025 unique?” he asked. First, it “is all the people in it,” each contributes their own gifts – in sports, theater, music, and academic excellence – during the past four years.

“But all of us will go on to make greater contributions to society in our own way,” Guzelian said, whether running labs, getting advanced degrees, going on to trade school to learn skills that keep society functioning, starting businesses, or becoming teachers. He advised his classmates to face the challenges “thrown at us” with patience, which he said “is not much valued.” 

Saying that success will not be handed on a platter and that perseverance through challenges is necessary, Guzelian said, “We will need to have patience and not rush through life trying to achieve things when perhaps it’s not the right time. Just remember that sometimes patience will need to be part of the process.”

Honored with a School Committee award for outstanding achievement, Jordan McCarty—who was awarded the Yale Book Award, is a World Cup medalist in fencing, and is an outstanding jazz musician who will attend New York University—said his father advised him to “first do the things you have to do, then do the things you want to do.” 

While he and many in the class are “guilty of draining away time on our phones,” McCarty said. “Instead, what I would want is to spend my time with those close to me and make timeless memories with them. To me, this has begun to fall under the category of things I have to do. You have to be able to enjoy your time. So take a breather, enjoy the present, and appreciate all the little moments.”

“I believe true happiness comes from the connections you form with other people and how you spend your time with them. Time quickly becomes our most important asset, and is important how we use it in this world. The one thing you can’t get back is your time. So cherish the time that you do have, spend it with people you love, and don’t regret one moment. That’s all that matters,” said 

After a performance of Stephen Paulus’ “The Road Home” by the BHS Chorus, each graduate crossed the dais to receive their diploma and have dozens of photographs documenting their journey. Soon, caps were flung skyward as the ceremony would beat the rain by less than an hour.