Inaugural BIHS Senior Class Celebrates

The first ever Berkeley International High School (BIHS) class at Berkeley High graduated on Friday, May 21, 2010, allowing BHS Principal Jim Slemp to see his pioneer students complete the program which he helped establish four years earlier.
The ceremony was held at the Pauley Ballroom on the University of California, Berkeley Campus, where Master of Ceremonies Coleman Lukas led the program through an engaging series of performances and speakers, both entertaining and sentimental.

“There was a lot of love flowing between everyone,” said BIHS English teacher Kerry Erspamer of the ceremony. “And it was great to be a part of that.”

Student speakers included Senior Leadership President Siobhán McArdle and Vice President Miya Sommers, as well as students Nick Lee and Luis Dimas, all of whom shared their thoughts and experiences throughout the last four years, through unique angles as different BIHS students. Many mentioned the pride they felt for being International Baccalaureate (IB) students, and how their experience differed from that of their peers in other programs. “Our high school experience compared to other students is rare,” said McArdle.

Occasional performances also provided relief from the heavy content of the some of the presentations throughout the night, including a beautiful and airy dance by senior Dominique Fluker and performances by trombonist Jonah Levine with three other members of the Berkeley High Jazz Combo A band, senior drummer James Small, sophomore keyboardist Nick Lamb and junior bassist Eric Shiboski. BIHS–themed poems were recited by Beyza Seflek and Amalia Korczowski to wrap up the event at the end of the night.

Slemp took the podium midway through the ceremony to a standing ovation of teachers, students, and parents who couldn’t thank him enough for the work he put into making the IB program available at BHS. “Students, you are the best,” said Slemp, “and students, you did it all with extraordinary class and dignity.”

Slemp’s speech covered a range of topics, from the experience of education and the completion of the first IB class, to the roles that the students’ generation would play in the problems we face as a planet today. He encouraged the students to make a difference in the world, and explained how each of them could help reverse such problems as climate change and world poverty. “There’s no problem that we face on Earth that won’t yield to human effort,” Slemp stressed, adding with a smile, “The planet came with a set of instructions, but I think we misplaced them.”

Tributes were then recited for teachers who had passed away during the class’ time at Berkeley High. History teacher Kalpna Mistry, who passed away on August 4, 2008, was remembered by Molly Ancel through a touching account of the inspiration she gave to Ancel and the bond they shared in the early stages of her high school life. Angela Chambers spoke about Susan Werd, who died on November 1, 2009. Chambers recognized Werd in an improvisational piece, explaining that the BHS guidance counselor had taught her to always speak from the heart.

By far the most sentimental piece of the night was a musical rendition performed by the famously emotional Jeff Liu, who teaches Theory of Knowledge and Comparative Values and Beliefs classes in BIHS. His presentation was a speech to his students about their futures and what they had to look forward to, accompanied by both music and tears.
“The whole evening was very emotional,” BIHS history and economics teacher Ross Parker commented on the event. “You can’t be that closely invested in something and not have an emotional reaction when it’s over.”

One of the closing pieces was presented by BIHS teachers Miranda Thorman, Jared Baird, Peter Rodrigues, Parker, and Erspamer. The five teachers each read short comments about students they had taught over the past four years, together recognizing each and every graduate of the BIHS class of 2010.

“We volunteered to write comments for students that we felt we knew well or just had a particularly funny comment for,” Erspamer explained. The commentary covered various memories of the class’ high school experience, and each note began with a student’s name and the words “I will remember.” While the performance was lengthy and largely only significant to the students, the teachers kept all members of the audience engaged with comments that were funny, nostalgic, emotional, and impressionable on everyone.

“To see them all graduating was a surreal experience because for the longest time we have tracked them, and discussed them, and planned for them, and to think about them leaving is just weird,” said Parker. “At the same time, they are so ready to take on the world and I am so excited to see what they become.”