In Pictures

Put on the blue gown of the Lycée and place the 2010 graduates' cap on your head. Be greeted by an audience of parents, teachers and friends. Listen to the endearing memories of your classmates and the wise advice of your teachers. Receive honors and your diploma. Start the next chapter after the Lycée Français de New York.

Tuesday, June 15, over 100 LFNY Terminale students went over this very special ritual during a graduation ceremony held at the 92nd Street Y before 400 members of our community. A few days later, 94% of them passed their bac on the first round, 89.7% of them with honors.

Though it was held off-campus so that as many families, friends and teachers as possible could be accommodated for the occasion, this ceremony was no less befitting of the LFNY. Both solemn and moving, it opened with the words of M. Thézé who called upon the students to dream big and with a tribute to the 29 faithful, those students who did almost all of their schooling at the Lycée, whom we rediscovered through photos of their early childhood.

Next, the touching and sincere exchange between the graduating seniors and their educators gave rhythm to the evening.

“Thank you” was all Mme Cuna, who was moved, said to her Terminale ES1 students, before receiving a long accolade from their delegates, Alexandre Belmont and Nicolas Boulad, visibly very attached to their teacher. A little earlier, M. Pavis had paid tribute to his TS1 class in a speech that was just his style, soccer match commentary style in which each of his students played a role. As for M. Yvelin, he wished for each member of the TS2 class to continue to question the world, whether or not they decide to continue in the sciences. Their delegates, Marianne Barthélémy and Paul Lebot, responded with lots of humor by assigning their classmates the names of prehistoric animals with atypical behavior. Next came the presentations of the TES2 class by a punster, M. Soquet, and of the TL class through the words of wisdom and intelligence of M. Leylavergne, fervent defender of his noble subject, Philosophy. Agathe Gindrey and Ada O'Higgin, the two delegates, echoed him by paying tribute to their literary classmates, exercising an exceptional usage of French and English.

In between each of these exchanges, there was ritual, symbolic and significant, from the awarding of prizes and diplomas to the passing of the tassel of the graduate from right to left as a sign of achievement.

This ceremony was also the opportunity for the students to convey to the Lycée one last time their talents as musicians and artists. Grégory Aschenbroich (TS2) captivated the audience with his performance on the piano of Chopin's Etudes No. 1 and 12 op. 25. Yamée Couture (TL) paid tribute to the diversity at the Lycée and throughout the world by performing her own composition, “We are all different”, and last, the Terminale film group presented a short film whose duel scene between M. Kramarsky and Nicolas Boulad was as good as the best westerns and will probably go down in the history of the Lycée.

Finally, as tradition would have it, the graduates concluded the ceremony by tossing their caps in the air, a final goodbye to their years as Lycée students and a first glance toward their dreams of the future.