East Catholic Holds 48th Commencement Ceremony [VIDEO]

East Catholic High School held its 48th commencement exercises Thursday evening at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, awarding diplomas to 184 graduating seniors at the four-year catholic high school. 

"This is a time of reelection on the experiences of the past four years and also a time to begin looking towards the next chapter in each of our lives," Senior Class Vice President Nicholas Joseph Benoit told the class during his welcome remarks. "Regardless of where life takes us in the future, we will forever share a bond as the East Catholic Class of 2012." 

Diplomas were presented by the Archbishop of Hartford the Most Rev. Henry J. Mansell and Superintendent of Catholic Schools Dale R. Hoyt. 

Dr. Joseph Lacy served as the commencement speaker. Lacy, a graduate of the inaugural East Catholic Class of 1965, was the first person to ever receive a diploma from East Catholic as its first class' president and currently serves as chairman of the board for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, which oversees 1000 doctors and 4500 staff and serves 750,000 patients in the four counties of the San Francisco Bay area. 

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He told the graduates that as they go out into the world and build lives and families, their choices will take them down many different paths in life, and while some might receive more accolades and outward success than others, what will matter the most is the connections each of them make to the world around them. 

"It's certainly important that you are motivated and that you exercise your intelligence, your cognitive abilities, you exercise your minds to take advantage of those opportunities," Lacy said. "But, in the end, that's not going to be the most important factor. The most important factor is going to be how well you're connected to the humanity around you. So where and how well your life goes will not depend on how smart you are or how well you exercise your. It's going to depend upon how well you exercise your soul." 

A full list of the graduates is attached as a PDF to this article.