Paws for inspiration: Sanford High top student shares ‘Sham-wow’ wisdom with Class of 2024

SANFORD, Maine — We all need a little more "Sham-wow" in our lives, Valedictorian Zachary Parison told his fellow graduates of Sanford High School during their commencement ceremony in the SHS gym on Wednesday night.

Parison said “Sham-wow” was the nickname he had for his family’s beloved Goldendoodle, Shami, who died on June 5, 2023, exactly one year before his favorite human stood on stage before his peers and delivered his valedictory remarks.

Hoping to inspire his peers as they get ready to take on the “real world,” Parison shared the life lessons he learned from Shami.

Parison told his classmates and the families and friends who filled bleachers on both sides of the gym that Sham-wow taught him that we all need to make and prioritize connections in life.

“She needed friends, and so do we,” Parison said. “We are not meant to walk this life alone.”

Parison added that Shami also taught him to have fun.

“She would get these random bursts of energy when she was 13 years old to just run in circles on our lawn and around our house,” he recalled. “She never got anywhere ... but that’s what happens when you have fun. You don’t always need to be productive. We need to take breaks, or we’ll burn out.”

Parison also said Shami taught him to stay positive and to remember that “perspective in life matters.”

“When we are faced with challenges, we can either complain about how life sucks, or we can get up and move forward,” he said.

Parison told his classmates that this graduation night made exactly one year since Shami died. He urged everyone to follow her example throughout life.

“We all need to follow in her footsteps – or, I guess, her paw steps,” he said. “We all need a little more Sham-wow in our lives.”

More: Sanford High School names top 10 students in the Class of 2024

Sanford High School grads share their plans after high school

Some of the graduates shared what they have planned for their next steps – their paw-steps, as Parison might say – as they gathered before marching into the gym, where close to 2,000 of their families and friends awaited them.

Samuel Sprague said he would be attending Colby College in the fall to study psychology and government.

“I’m potentially leaving off the government part until the second semester of my freshman year, just to get an idea for the college atmosphere,” he said. “But I plan on studying both.”

Sprague credited his parents, Gary and Michelle, and his school counselor, Greg McDougal, for helping him get to this point in his life. He also said he will most treasure his time with his friends, with whom he had a “lot of shenanigans.”

“I feel like there’s some people who really had my back all these years,” he said.

With her high school career now complete, Mollie Poyner said she will serve in the United States Navy during the next chapter of her life.

“My dad was in the military for 14 years,” she said.

Tyler Ketchum said he was feeling “pretty good” about graduating, but he acknowledged the occasion was “nerve-racking, as well.” He said he will be attending Southern Maine Community College to study automotive technology. Before, however, he will spend the summer earning money with a job he has gotten at a local pizza shop.

Ketchum credited his family and his teachers for helping him to succeed. In particular, he mentioned his teacher, Karen Webb.

"She's willing to help her students through anything," Ketchum said.

Webb spoke highly of Ketchum as well, expressing pride in the progress he showed throughout his high school career.

Audrey Cote said she will study art history at college, with the goal of becoming the curator of a museum someday. She expressed an interest in traveling and studying abroad, most likely in Madrid.

Cote credited her parents, Adam and Paula, the chair of the Sanford School Committee, with helping her “pull through” and make her way to graduation night.

Cote noted that she grew up with a lot of the classmates she was graduating with.

“I think it’s really sweet because we’re all kind of doing our own thing,” she said. “I got to see their whole journey and where they’re all going.”

Of all the graduates of Sanford High’s Class of 2024, it would be a safe bet to say that Raissa Pedro is among those who have come the farthest – literally – to reach this moment she shared with her peers on commencement night. Pedro enrolled in Sanford High in the spring of 2023, after moving to America from Angola, one of more than 100 asylum seekers to become a part of the community.

Pedro said she feels “really good” about her future and plans to study paramedicine at college. But first, she has a job to do: she said she will be serving as an EMT with the fire department in Shapleigh.

Pedro said she has changed much since reporting to her first day at SHS a year ago. She said her English and her social skills have improved.

“I feel ready to go,” she said. “A year ago, I wouldn’t have been ready for anything that’s coming.”

Sanford High School Class of 2024

• Mikayla M. Adair
• Emma Hope Adawadkar
• Sophia Aiken
• Baneen M. Al Beadhany
• Julia M. Aldrich Gauthier
• Simon Alipalo
• Lamar Amoakohene
• Alexander Anderson
• Jermaine J. Anderson
• Mark Atkinson
• Shyaka Arthur Bahuze
• Madison Baker
• Beckett Owen Barlow
• Alexander Phoenix Barth
• Kristopher J.m. Bataran
• Sarah M. Bernard
• Tyson Bernard
• Lila Bernier
• Tyler Berube
• Taylor F. Bineau
• Jordan Bissonnette
• Hunter C. Blais
• Jocelynn E. Blanchette
• Lilly M. Boissonneault
• Maddison S. Bouchard
• Makai Deyvon Bougie
• Sydney A. Brackett
• Brooke L. Brown
• Lauren A. Brown
• Salem A. Brown
• Matthew M. Buckman
• Carter Buswell
• Jayde-lynn D. Cabezal
• Emma Carder
• Colin Carpenter
• Paloma A. Carrillo
• Makayla T. Chasse
• Erin Arline Chevalier
• Trevor D. Clegg
• Ariel Cormack
• Logan R. Cormack
• Audrey E. Cote
• Michael Edward Cousineau
• Rileigh Crocker
• Timothy Blake Crocker
• Jack Cullen
• Alison Frances Curcio
• Rachel Andrea Cyr
• Julia R. Czajkowski
• Isabella Dale
• Dustin Dall
• Fineus B. Daly
• Caroline Daskoski
• Alanah M. Davis
• Zoe Day
• Michael R. Delaney
• Piper Desroberts
• Garrett E. Devoe
• Meg C. Donnelly
• Allisundria J. Douglass
• Caylee Dubois
• Tanner Dumas
• Kembi Rosa Eduardo
• Dayla Maelee Farrell
• Nicholas Prescott Farrington
• Wyatt Flinkstrom
• Ethan Fontaine
• Sean Fowler
• Ross James French
• Nevaeh S. Gagne
• Aidan C. Gagnon
• Matt Gahagan
• Eden I. Gallant
• Brady Garlough
• Jennifer Gay
• Brandon Matthew Gendreau
• Kyle Gendreau
• Lucas Gerard Gendreau
• Aidan Pride Gendron
• Ava Louise Gendron
• Benjamin T. Gill
• Siarra M. Gokey
• Caitlyn Ann Goode
• Landon Christopher Gosling
• Craig J. Grant
• Korrinne Mercedes Greer
• Olivia Kay Guinard
• Nicholas John Haffey
• Jase Hale
• Wynter Gabrielle Ham
• Caitlin Ayn Hanselmann
• Elijah G. Hanson
• Juliette R. Harding
• Edward Harrington
• Shawnty Macara Harris
• Hudson Harrison
• Elijiah S. Hill
• Yao Wen Hu
• Mathew Michael Paul Huff
• Kürt A. James
• Emma Nicole Janousek
• Isabella Jaques
• Zachary Jason
• Genevieve Jean-Paul
• Benjamin Maxwell Jones
• Adrian E. Juarez
• Rosaleigh M. Kendrick
• Brandon Kennedy
• Leah N. Keochampa
• Tyler J. Ketchum
• Aaron J. Kiley
• Isabella L. Kimball
• Connor Kingsbury
• Eric D. Lachapelle
• Grace E. Lachapelle
• Julia Lachapelle
• Lillian Rose Lakin
• Lilianna Mai-lee Lam
• Chloe E. Lane
• Mason James Lane
• Aiden Lanteigne
• Haley Mae Laurendeau
• Nicholas Sean Laurendeau
• Natalee Lawrance
• Ashley May Lebeuf
• Cole Legere
• Kiera Lemay
• Logan B. Libby
• Kadedra O. Liscombe
• Emily Liston
• Cole Lizotte
• Ayden Lockard
• Lucas Alexander Lolley
• Scott T. Long, Jr.
• Paris Maffei
• Eleonora Mancini
• Ailey Mann
• Rylee Marie Marr
• Mariana Martin
• Erik Martinez
• Eleesa M. Mathieu
• Julissa M. Mcbarron
• Tanner N. Mccann
• Adrian T. Mccatty
• Emily J. Mcfarland
• Kelsie R. Mcgee
• Ryan Alexander Mcgee
• Ellie Mcgrath
• Aiden J. Mclellan
• Shelby L. Mcleod
• Calman Mcnutt
• Bradly Michaud
• Zachary Thomas Michienzi
• Malachi Jamal Tyshon Mikulski
• Tatum Janann Milley
• Jonathan Carter Mills
• Hunter Mitchell
• Michelle Rose Morley
• Hannah Jean Mueller
• Immanuel Alexander Nichols
• Eric Norwald
• Miguel Ortiz
• Zachary Daniel Parison
• Hannah E. Paterson
• Samuel Patten
• Alexandra Edith Payeur
• Jayden Matthew Payeur
• Lane Andrew Payeur
• Myah A. Payeur-Whitten
• Edwin J. Pease
• Raissa Pedro
• Wesley M. Pelletier
• Kaylin B. Penley
• Chloee O. Phinney
• Tylor J. Pitman
• Mollie Poyner
• Maranda Ramini
• Cameron Randall
• Katrina Randall
• Valerie Randall
• Trenton E. Rankin
• William Reed
• Kaylee Remick
• Devonti Revers
• Lindsey E. Ricker
• Jared Riley
• Logan N. Riley
• Alarik Rines
• Makayla Rocray
• Theo Rogers
• Sydney Stormer Roux
• Jason R. Rowe
• Chase Kadin Roy
• Kamryn Alexis Sanborn
• Abigail Linda Savoy
• Jack Sevigny
• Tyler P. Sevigny
• Davis Riley Simmons
• Arkayde-Jennifer L. Smith
• Fuquon Smith
• Parker Southers
• Connor Owen Spearin
• Samuel W. Sprague
• Alana Stewart
• Luke E. St. Onge
• Viktor Stock
• David Stone III
• Cameron Suhy
• Nora-jane M. Tanner
• Hailey Anne Tarbox
• Miranda L. Tarnowski
• Evan Jonathan Ouellette Tate
• Trace E. Thibault
• Caleb H. Thomas
• Alivian Thompson
• Jacob M. Toothaker
• Evelyn A. Toulouse
• Sophia Tounge
• Ryan G. Tremblay
• Michael Trumble
• Reese Turner
• Mason Van Gieson
• Tucker Walker
• Greggory J. Waterman
• Taylor Marie Watson
• Josey-Mae Weyland
• Patrick White, Jr.
• Drake Wilson
• Sally L. Yong
• Gavin Zappala
• Autumn Zielke

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Paws for inspiration: Sanford High top student shares ‘Sham-wow’ wisdom with Class of 2024