The Toll Gate Symphonic Orchestra played and family members cheered as women in red robes and men in blue robes proceeded into the crowded grassy area.

On the sunny Tuesday evening of June 13, 267 seniors graduated from Toll Gate High School at the Aldrich Mansion, crossing the stage with a scenic view of Narragansett Bay as a backdrop. A couple of spectator boats anchored off shore. The graduates sat in rows of chairs facing a stage with giant screens on either side giving the audience up close views of the proceedings as well as overheads from a drone above. From their lawn chairs, blankets or simply sitting on the ground, onlookers screamed their loved ones’ names, applauded and occasionally blew air horns. This was the big moment and the morning rain had given way to bright sun and a cool southwest breeze.

The ceremony included speeches from students, administrators and city stakeholders including Mayor Frank Picozzi, Superintendent Lynn Dambruch and School Committee Chairman David Testa, all celebrating the accomplishments of the graduating seniors.

Picozzi praised the graduating class for making it to the “finish line of childhood,” sharing that this occasion was special enough for him to wear a tie, something he said he rarely does. He acknowledged that some members of the class are destined to leave Warwick, so he reminded them that this “will always be your home.”

The valedictorian, Svetlana Steponova is a National Honor Society scholar, varsity tennis captain, student council treasurer, vice president of the Rhode Island Historical Society Teen Advisory Board, Best Buddies president, math team captain and award-winning artist, and she will be attending Boston University to pursue a double major in Business and Fine Arts.

Steponova said in her remarks that it has been a “long and convoluted journey” because of the unexpected pandemic in the middle of their high school experience, but she is “grateful with how everything unfolded.” She added that she’s “glad we did it all together.”

Steponova also said that as a “sentimental person,” she thanks Toll Gate for “memories that will last a lifetime” and challenges her peers to “remember and keep the memories alive.”

Kristen Carcieri, the salutatorian, thanked her teachers, family and friends for “sticking with me through all of the hard times in high school.” Carcieri, a National Honor Society scholar, polyglot, Chairperson of Rhode Island Historical Society Communications Committee for Teen Advisory Board, mock trial president, student council member, musician, drama club member, figure skater and active volunteer, will be attending New York University’s Stern School of Business with a focus in marketing. She offered words of encouragement to her peers.

“Think the most about your happiness when making choices, but it is important to remember that perfection does not exist,” Carcieri said. “Life will always present us with challenges and setbacks, but it will also offer us moments of success and happiness.”

She expressed to her class that she is excited to see “all of the different choices you will be making and the different paths that they will take you on.”

Principal Candace Calouri thanked all of the teachers, administrators and supporters within Toll Gate and the feeder schools for helping the graduates get to where they are today. She shared words of advice to the Class of 2023, urging them to “make good choices” and “be good human beings.”

Calouri reminded the graduates that “once a titan, always a titan.”

After all of the students crossed the stage and received their diplomas, the graduates tossed their caps in the air, the orchestra swelling. They huddled as a class in the middle of the chairs, cheering and beaming, together for the last time.