In her writing her speech for Saturday’s graduation, salutatorian Rachel Drew said she solicited help from her fellow classmates at Gray-New Gloucester High School, who suggested a variety of topics and offered pearls of wisdom.

Drew, who is attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York next year, summed up the suggestions, telling the 146 graduates to get involved, keep an open mind, and take pride in community. Just as her speech was built with help from her friends, Drew said to take pride and strength from the people around you.

“Life is not a journey to walk alone,” she said during the commencement ceremony at the Cumberland County Civic Center.

Valedictorian Hannah Verrill honored the “achievements big and small” accomplished by her classmates over the last 13 years of schooling. All of those achievements, she said, were the result of hard work and dedication buttressed by the support of family and friends.

“We owe thanks to those who have helped us along the way,” said Verrill, who will major in chemical engineering at University of Maine next fall. “I think I can speak for all of us. You are what got us through.”

High school seniors are often told they must upon graduation enter the “real world,” a place free from the comforts of a dictated life at home and school, said School Administrative District 15 Superintendent Victoria Burns in her address.

But Gray-New Gloucester High School’s class of 2008 is entering a “Brave New World,” she said. It is a world where young adults fluent in technology must capitalize on those skills and help guide their communities, the nation, the Earth, to a better place.

“You are the perfect age in the perfect time for your brave new world,” said Burns, with the graduates behind her shining brilliantly in their caps and gowns, the boys in blue, the girls in white.

While we cannot predict what the fast changing world will look like in 10 years, Burns said, “It will be full of opportunities waiting for those with the right stuff.

“The class of 2008 has the right stuff.”

Principal Paul Penna followed, urging the crowd to forget what they hear about detached teens who are closer to their iPods and cell phones than the friends and community around them. The class of 2008, he said, defies the easy generalizations placed on their generation by the older crowd.

“They talk face to face,” he said. “(But) they use technology as a tool of efficiency.”

If the members of the Gray-New Gloucester graduating class are any indication, the world is in good hands, Penna said.

“I’m one AARP member who is not afraid of our future,” he said.

Dr. Alan Rich, chairman of the SAD 15 School Board, told the students to focus on graduation as the beginning of their new life, in a new world where you must ultimately find your own way and “oral encouragement is not so freely given.”

In quoting T.S. Eliot, Rich asked the students move forward and make the world their own.

“Home is where one starts from,” Rich said as he began the passage, one that finishes “In my end is my beginning.”

In his commencement address, ninth-grade teacher Dr. Harvey Moynihan followed the class of 2008 through their high school years, using quotes from teachers to tell the story of a gifted and thoughtful group of students.

Ninth-grade, he said, is a place to conform and fit in above all else. “The class of 2008 was very different,” he said. This class was known as tolerant, with a sincere appreciation for one another, Moynihan said.

“These are qualities that a lot of 12th-graders don’t possess,” he said.

As they moved into their sophomore year, the class of 2008 was described as inquisitive, and as being a close knit community. As 11th graders, the class was seen as introspective, engaging, and inclusive. They had a definite “personality,” Moynihan said.

As they end their final high school year with graduation, Moynihan told the class to give time to family and friends, look for the best in everybody, and don’t be afraid to “dream big.”

“I’m talking about stepping outside the box and not fearing failure,” Moynihan said.

In closing, Moynihan quoted the memoir “Teacher Man,” by Frank McCourt.

“Find out what you love to do and do it,” Moynihan told the students. “And don’t settle for less.”

Members of the class of 2008 at Gray-New Gloucester High School sing upon the completion of their commencement exercises Saturday evening at the Cumberland County Civic Center. The class was told to embrace a “Brave New World” by