Edenwald School Seniors Reach New Heights at Graduation
Schools across Westchester spent the past week recognizing the many accomplishments of their graduating students.
A similar scenario unfolded last Wednesday in a different setting. Seven students overcame severe challenges to earn their diplomas at the JCCA’s Edenwald School in Pleasantville.
Superintendent David Bernsley said despite facing extreme adversity the students, all between 17 and 20 years old, never quit. He congratulated them and their families for their hard work and perseverance.
“You went through it, you had grit, you will always have this to fall back on and you can do whatever you want in this world,” Bernsley said in his remarks to the graduates. “You are the best of the best.”
Joe Mott, senior recreation coordinator for the JCCA campus, said most of the student body faces cognitive and/or emotional disabilities. They struggle with their thought process and controlling their emotions, requiring extensive support services to be successful and to stay focused in the classroom, Mott said.
A majority of the roughly 100 students live on campus although some commute daily from throughout the metropolitan area, he said. Some will go on to college while others will pursue a trade.
“A lot of these kids have struggled in other schools due to their inability and instability,” Mott said. “But they’ve come here and stabilized and really achieved great heights with tutoring and a lot of support and through the cottages and through the school that helps them be able to graduate and be successful.”
No one exemplified the fortitude embodied in last week’s graduates than Taylor Harrison, a Mount Vernon resident and a three-year Edenwald School student. Harrison became the first Edenwald student last week to earn a Regents diploma.
She is going on to Bronx Community College in the fall and hopes to return to Edenwald one day to be a high school teacher.
“There were a lot of obstacles during the time, the three years that I was here, passing the Regents with the score that I wanted,” Harrison said. “I’m kind of an overachiever and wanted a higher score.”
A couple of weeks ago, it was unclear whether Gregory McClain, a Bronx native, was going to graduate, said Rohan Dinham, a vocational coordinator at the school. However, he persevered to the end and will now return to his mother’s house with a high school diploma.
McClain will attend community college and hopes to become a child care worker. He said it was an emotional experience to walk to the front of the gymnasium where the commencement ceremonies were held with his classmates to the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance.”
“When I walked out I had tear in my eyes,” said McClain. “I had all this emotion.”
In addition to Harrison and McClain, last week’s graduates were Robert Pendarvis, Felix Escobar, Kenny Hill, Shaida Gray and Alyssa Bryant.
It was also a special day for staff members like Mott.
“Watching these kids grow up and really succeed when a lot of people thought they couldn’t is really empowering,” he said. “You’re amazed by how successful they are and you see it in the faces of a lot of kids, they never thought they would ever get to this point. This is a huge accomplishment just for people who struggled and have been taken from their homes, being successful and graduating is a huge accomplishment.”
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/