At Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts on Friday, June 22, top left, Faye Hightower and Mary Hightower stand with graduate Tecarrah Faye Williams, center.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — The Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts held commencement exercises for the Class of 2018 on Friday, June 22, inside the school’s theater on Winans Street. The guest speakers at the ceremony were Assistant U.S. Attorney Dara A. Govan and actor Brandon V. Dixon, who plays a lawyer on the TV show “Power.”
“Our graduation … is about three hours, but we get the gamut. This year, we featured the saxophone — two seniors that played the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ — something that no one has seen before, and it was exquisite,” said CTS Principal Anita Champagne on Monday, June 25, the last day of school in East Orange. “It speaks to the expectation that we have here. It’s always about our motto: ‘We aim high and we soar even higher.’ So this is a graduating class of 94 total and $9 million in scholarships.”
On Monday, June 25, many members of the Class of 2018, including Destany Armani George and Joshua Daniel Ancion, were back in class, even though they didn’t have to be there.
“One of the big jokes during graduation was, at the end of each phone message that I sent to the parents, I always say, ‘It takes a village and that this is the village,’ so during the graduation, I said, ‘Welcome to the village,” Champagne said. “Really, when you look at everything, as we’re collectively doing this together, it puts that desire in your heart to want to come back and show what you have been modeled. So, in the school, if we’re modeling giving back to the community, we’re having them do service projects that are in the community, really showing how where we are is great, because they’re great, then you’re going to develop young individuals who, when they are adults, they want to do exactly that. They want to make sure that they’re vested in the community that helped create them.”
George and Ancion embody the ethos Champagne mentioned; this is why they came back for the last day of school, even after graduating Friday, June 22.
“I’ve been here since fourth grade and this is where I actually started my career and how I even grew as a person, so for me, I have to come back to East Orange, because this is my home. This is where I grew, this is where people took me in as a son, even though I’m not even their flesh and blood, and they helped me grow as a man, so I have to come back and give back,” said Ancion on Monday, June 25.
Ancion said he received $187,000 in scholarships, including $98,000 for one school. He plans to attend William Paterson University to study physical education and health education.
“I feel like it’s the people; it’s the teachers, the principals, everyone in the building. I feel like everybody aimed me into becoming a great young man and I want to make them proud, so I have to stick to it and actually show them I did it for them and me.”
Ancion said he wants to be a gym teacher and come back to CTS and the local district to work, even though he’s not looking to take a job from any of his former teachers.
“Probably, I’m coming back to take somebody’s job,” said Ancion with a smile. “I’m not trying to move anybody out.”
George said she plans to go to college, earn a degree and then come back to CTS to “come for” Champagne and Assistant Principal John English’s jobs.
“I’m coming for his job. I’m going to be his boss,” said George on Monday, June 25. “I’m going to Montclair State University to major in mathematics. I’m an alumna now. I’ll be here the whole summer. I work here for a living.”
Champagne said that’s what she likes to hear from her students.
“Actually, our salutatorian said she’s going to come back and be an English teacher. So I love the fact that, when the kids leave their experience here at Tyson, that it’s such a warm experience, that they want to come back and give back to the community, through the educational system,” Champagne said. “Ideally, we want to move out of the way for the young people. They’re moving us out.”
English, who was a math teacher before becoming a school administrator, agreed with Champagne’s goal of providing students with the best, most thorough and efficient education possible and all the tools they will need to succeed in life, even if that success means they will be coming back to the school someday for his job or anybody else’s.
“It’s graduation time in the city. Twenty-two schools, 22 promotional ceremonies and/or graduations. It’s a great thing, as long as they leave,” joked English on Monday, June 25. He also had some career advice for George: “She wants to be me when she grows up. But she’s got to be a math teacher first. You’ve got to be in the classroom five years. Mr. English was always a math teacher. That messed the kids up. They called me everything: ‘Mr. Contradiction,’ ‘Mr. Spanish;’ they called me everything, but my name. But it’s alright. They got the scores, so it’s OK.”
English said the school’s faculty members are all “very proud of the Class of 2018.”
“Our valedictorian, Marlon Solomon, got over $1 million in scholarships and he’s going to Berkeley to major in music business administration. And then our salutatorian, Fatoumata Kaba, got a full ride to Georgetown,” English said. We’re very proud of this 2018 class. This year’s class was great, over $9 million in scholarships, which we’re very proud of, but always keep learning. Never stop learning.”
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