NWR7 graduates 187 students

TORRINGTON — Northwestern Regional High School held its 58th graduation ceremony on Wednesday, June 8, at The Warner Theater. At the ceremony, 186 students graduated.

The class address was given by Senior Class President Joseph Colombine, and the senior class performed “Beautiful City” from the play “Godspell.”

The salutatorian address was given by Kiley Stotler, and the valedictorian address was given by Brian Ferrarotti.

The keynote speaker for the ceremony was social studies, civics and current issues teacher Frank Rodenberg.

“Being present is an important life skill in the technology age, where we live in a society that is constantly distracted,” Rodenberg said. “But I’m not here to teach you how to be present. The life skill i’m going to teach you is how to drift into a daydream when you’re part of a captive audience. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m quite skilled at the art of daydreaming.”

Rodenberg spoke about how daydreaming has been used by some of history’s most productive people, including Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.

“Daydreaming is the incubator of discovery,” he said. “Students, I promise you that there are going to be times when you are part of a captive audience and this skill will be very valuable. Your parents have been there. You might have to endure an 80- slide Powerpoint presentation where the presenter reads every slide or feel the heavy weight of a company meeting that gets unnecessarily stressful.” 

Rodenberg encouraged graduates to draw inspiration and life lessons from their dreams. 

“You don’t want to waste time when you’re time is being wasted, so use the memory-based daydream as a time to reflect,” he said. “Class of 2016, it has been my pleasure to teach you, coach you, travel with you and even go bicycling and play basketball with a few of you. We will miss you, but keep Northwestern Regional High School in your memories. The next time, you are part of a captive audience, I hope that you are able to tap into some good memories from your time at Regional that inspire you to do great things in your future. Dream on.”