Lauralton women embark on world

Posted by: Debbie Bowley on Mon, 04 June 2007 14:20:23

Reprinted from the New Haven Register - 6/4/2007
by Pamela McLoughlin, Register Staff

MILFORD - For three best friends at Lauralton Hall High School who spent extra time at school many days just so they could be together, Sunday's graduation from the all-girls high school was even more bittersweet than usual. 

Ashley Calero, 18, and Laura Lysaght, 17, both of Milford and Krystal McKane, 18, of West Haven, just about finish one another's sentences, so they fear it will be tough when they leave for different colleges in Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Hartford. "It's exciting, but sad," Lysaght said of graduating.

"We're used to seeing each other every day in school and after school," McKane said.

They'll keep in touch by phone and online by Facebook, and they've promised to be at one another's weddings.
Those kinds of promises were rampant at Lauralton Sunday as this year's 97 graduates primped, hugged and chatted as they prepared to line up for commencement.

Academy of Our Lady of Mercy Lauralton Hall president Barbara Griffin told graduates how the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, Mother Catherine McAuley, believed the only way to bring about a lasting change in society was to educate girls.

"How sad it would make her to learn, as I did this week, that, three centuries later, there are countries in the world where people bomb schools to keep girls out," Griffin said.

Griffin also acknowledged as extraordinary women Mother Augustine Claven, who dreamed of opening a school for girls here and purchased the estate on High Street where Lauralton sits, and Mother Francis Ward, who led the first group of Sisters of Mercy across the Atlantic to bring the mission to North America.

"If I could have the opportunity to speak to these three women today about you, the class of 2007, I would say to them, 'Yes, they are ready. They know the education they received here at Lauralton is not just for them. They know that we expect them to make the world a better place for all women by what they do with their lives.'"

Valedictorian Kathleen Keenoy said that while graduation is a celebration of successes over the last four years, not all successes come in the form of scoring a winning goal or being honored on awards night.

"Sometimes the most important successes are those that are a result of dealing with our shortcomings, failures or adversity, because it is those experiences that make us stronger," said Keenoy of Fairfield. "We learn lessons of trial and error through determination, persistence and commitment.

"This idea can best be illustrated in the famous words of Thomas Edison when he said, 'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."