By Ben Burgess
At 7 o’clock tonight, June 26, 2013, some 349 Morristown High School seniors will file solemnly into the William G. Mennen Sports Arena, quietly absorbing the expectant gazes of friends and families. Finally, after four long years of hard work, these students can breathe sighs of relief.
They will be graduating.
But Catherine Wong, who will attend Stanford University this fall, has one more assignment before she can relax.
As valedictorian of the Class of 2013, Wong must address the enormous crowd. And according to her, writing such a weighty speech is far from easy.
“It’s daunting, and you try as hard as you can to can to get out of it,” Wong said. “Then you realize that that’s not actually a possibility.”
So, with help from Salutatorian Brett Harvey, MHS English teachers Cynthia Laudadio and Jennifer Furphy, and retired English teacher Marily O’Connor, Wong constructed something off the heavily beaten path that valedictory speeches usually take.
“We’ve tried really hard to make it not too serious. No deep answers are going to be revealed here. You’re not going to discover your inner self.”
And Wong really means “we.” She plans to deliver the speech jointly with Harvey, a Congressional Gold Medal Award winner who, like Wong, notched a perfect SAT score and will be attending Stanford University come September.
Cathy Wong, Morristown’s tech whiz kid
Wong hopes their collaboration will lessen the length of an already sprawling ceremony, which is scheduled to include speeches from Class President Charles Sanderson and Student Government President Megan Angulo, a writer for MorristownGreen.com.
- Morristown High School senior Brett Harvey, a Congressional Gold Medal Award winner, will help Cathy Wong deliver the valedictory speech at the 2013 MHS graduation. He is flanked by Paxton K. Baker, chairman of the award foundation board, and Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th Dist.)
“We could have each been speaking separately until you got bored,” Wong joked.
Despite their light-hearted approach, however, Wong said she still hopes to convey a meaningful message:
“High school is about searching. So much of high school was about being asked questions in tests or by teachers, and we just wanted to focus on questions that we as students were asking ourselves, questions that have no easy answers.”
This concept of searching reflects Wong’s own journey through high school. Indeed, when she entered MHS, Wong was fairly set on going to college as an English major.
“I had a very defined idea of where I was going,” she said.
Now, after taking several physics classes, and building a groundbreaking Bluetooth stethoscope, Wong wants a degree in electrical engineering or computer science.
And with one successful invention under her belt, Wong already is looking beyond Stanford and considering forming a company.
“The best schooling that you can have is schooling in the real world,” she said. “You can’t get anything better than just trying your hand at it: Building stuff, failing, and building again.”
That process seems to apply to speechwriting, too. Is she happy with the final product?
“It was pretty weird at one point. Now it’s weird, but it also makes sense. Hopefully, it’ll be fun.”
so she can’t write her own valedictorian speech???
Congratulations to Cathy, Brett, their parents, teachers, MHS and Morristown. Wonderful story. Now go soar at Stanford!
Many years ago the Town and the Township were fighting over attempts to have separate schools for each municipality. That often bitter fight ended with a court mandated merger.
How proud I am of these fine students, who have proven that the merger did not deny our students any opportunities to do great things.