PROVIDENCE — The 231 students earning diplomas during Bishop Hendricken High School’s 55th graduation ceremony entered the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul on Friday night, June 10 in a sea of green and gold.
Valedictorian Riley J. Chabot, who made the most of the four-year scholarship he was awarded to attend Hendricken by the school’s greatest benefactor, Joseph Healey, ’84, recalled in his address how celebrating Mass together in the cathedral at different points over the last four years has been an important part of their formation.
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“First and foremost I need to thank God, without whom none of this would have been possible, and whose presence seems all the more intimate in this beautiful cathedral,” said Chabot, who will attend Princeton University this fall.
Vincent F. Mancuso, the school’s vice president for mission integration, said that while all educators strive to remember all of their students through the years, Chabot has made an indelible imprint on the Hendricken community through his innumerable accomplishments, making the very most of the opportunity to attend that he was given.
“This young man is someone we will always remember as a true hawk and as a man of great character and potential. He is someone when we look back, we will say, he was one of our very best,” Mancuso said of Chabot.
Chabot attained the school’s President’s List every semester over the past four years and was inducted into the English, French and math honor societies. He served as an important member of the school’s nationally ranked Academic Decathlon Team, and even followed Principal Joseph Brennan’s advice to step out of his comfort zone by attending a mission service trip to Brownsville, Texas.
Chabot, in his address, attributed his success to the shared talents of his classmates, whose character he would match against any other Hendricken class, past or future.
“Academically, athletically, artistically and spiritually, this group of young men has upheld the Hendricken mission unlike any other,” Chabot said.
“We have each authored unique stories and have played pivotal roles in the stories of others. I alone did not write this speech, we wrote it together.”
