Pomp and circumstance....

CHENANGO COUNTY – After graduation, caps and gowns are put away and each Class of 2007 throughout Chenango County will venture out into new worlds, adjusting to life in the workforce, college, the armed forces or some far-off place as exchange students or volunteers. For now, their teachers and administrators remember the years they spent in high school vividly.

• Norwich

Norwich senior class advisor Richard Bernstein says the class of 2007 is a strong student body led by a strong class president. Like many other classes following the tragedy of 9/11, he says the students seem more in tune and aware of the problems at home and around the world. “They are concerned for the country as well as the world’s future,” said Bernstein. He also says the students are academically prepared and politically aware, understanding the implications of current issues, like the strife in the Middle East and Darfur.

“They are concerned with the challenges they will face and not blind to the world around them,” he said. “ This is a historically significant era.”

• Otselic Valley

According to Otselic Valley Senior Class Advisor Lori Wood, OV’s class of 2007 is a tight knit bunch of dedicated students. “They are a family,” Wood said of the graduating seniors. “It’s a small class, and they truly care about each other.”

The seniors in the OV class are different than other classes because of their strong work ethic and dedication to the things they do, Wood explained. Many of the students in the class play sports, are involved in extra curricular activities and have jobs in addition to doing academic work. This is apparent when looking at the Valedictorian Rachel Perry and the Salutatorian Jack Conway, both of whom are dedicated to activities outside of the school. Rachel, who was the only student to participate in the orchestra pit during the school musical, is active in the Smyrna Citizens Band and Jack, who is also active in the school plays, donates a portion of his time to tutoring math at Wilson Hospital in Binghamton.

“They have huge hearts. Inside and outside of school activities, the kids are very involved all the way around. I can honestly say that about the whole class,” Wood said.

Wood said the teachers referred to the class of 2007 as their survivors, because they dealt with changes in New York State testing standards and the change of a teacher in a core class in the middle of the semester and still managed to come out on top. In addition to all of that, Wood said she and other teachers found the students to be genuinely fun. “They know how to have fun, but they still have an amazing work ethic,” she said.

• Gilbertsville-Mt. Upton

Senior Peter Simon, 17, says he overcame an unusually challenging year with the help of his classmates. Simon’s father died in October from Cancer. An only child, he had already lost his mother a few years before.