New Roots, Ithaca High celebrate Class of 2026

New Roots, Ithaca High celebrate Class of 2026

At two Ithaca graduations, New Roots’ 100% graduating class and Ithaca High’s first full-class ceremony since 2019 urge seniors to choose lives of kindness and civic action.

Written by Jaime Cone Hughes of Tompkins Weekly

(read original article at https://www.tompkinsweekly.com/news/new-roots-ithaca-high-celebrate-class-of-2026-2be9cc95)

On opposite sides of Ithaca, a common theme emerged from two very different high school commencement ceremonies: For the Class of 2026, graduating is less about leaving high school than about choosing how to live.

At the Ithaca Community School of Music and Arts on June 25, New Roots Charter School’s seniors were the 15th class to graduate from the small downtown school. The day before, across town at Moresco Stadium, students, staff and families celebrated more than 150 graduating classes’ worth of tradition as Ithaca High School bid its seniors farewell.

Both, on their biggest night of the year, trained their focus on the same themes: connection, kindness, civic responsibility and the choice to build lives defined by love rather than fear.

New Roots Charter School: 100% graduation and a “magic key”

New Roots principal and founder Tina Nilsen-Hodges opened the June 25 ceremony by asking the audience to pause long enough to notice the moment.

“New Roots class of 2026, we are gathered on this glorious day to celebrate your success in achieving a major life goal, earning your high school diploma,” Nilsen-Hodges told the crowd. She reminded students that the accomplishment was “the culmination of years of your intellectual and personal growth and development in high school built on the foundation of many years of education prior.”

Nilsen-Hodges framed the diploma as both milestone and tool.

“You can lose all of your possessions, or they can be taken from you, but no one can take away that degree,” she said.

“That diploma is a magic key to open many doors to the new possibilities that you imagine for yourself,” she added, “but it is your education that will be your focus on the journey ahead.”

According to New Roots administration, every member of the Class of 2026 graduated — including 100% of its seniors of color. Each completed the requirements for a local or Regents diploma and additional benchmarks in civic knowledge and civic participation.

The school reported that 100% of graduates also earned college credit for at least one course, were accepted to college and were active in the Rotary Interact Club.

Nilsen-Hodges told Tompkins Weekly she is most proud that “100% of our seniors graduated, and 100% of them earned the NYS Seal of Civic Readiness.”

She contrasted New Roots’ approach with more traditional pathways, saying the curriculum is “designed to support all students to develop the life and learning skills needed for college, career and life,” teaching them “how to work with people to get things done, how to use what they learn in high school to create a better life for themselves and their community.”

Student speakers: Reinvention, tiny classrooms and finding “my people”

Rather than naming a single valedictorian and salutatorian, New Roots invites any seniors who feel called to speak or share art. Nilsen-Hodges introduced seniors Claire Springston and Amaya Doolittle as the day’s speakers.

Springston, who spent her junior year homeschooled before coming to New Roots, used her time to thank the person who, she said, scheduled her every day to keep her on track.

“I know there’s a lot of my teachers here today, but most of my thanks really should go to my mom,” she said. “She was literally writing me an itemized list of every single piece of schoolwork that I had to do every single day. People usually think that I’m making that up.”

“Without my mom and all the work that she put into my education, I really have no idea who I would be,” she added.

Attending New Roots, Springston told the crowd, made graduation feel real.

“Now I’m graduating, and not from my kitchen table,” she said. “A really special thing about [New Roots] is that everyone’s story would really be very different. Anyone can tell you that at New Roots you can be an individual, and there’s so much room for learning and exploring things that really interest you personally.”

Doolittle, who spent part of high school at Ithaca High School before transferring, described New Roots as the place where she allowed herself to start over.

“This school allowed me to reinvent myself,” she said. “I didn’t have to hold on to everything I was at IHS; I could just be unapologetically me.”

“I didn’t realize that at first, so I made some mistakes and I lost some friends,” she said, “but then I found something else that was more than worth the losses — myself.”

She thanked close friends and singled out several adults at the school, including Nilsen-Hodges, staff member David Streib and educators she credited with helping her explore her identity and leadership as a student of color.

“Being president of the original Students of Color Unity elective was beyond [an] honor, and I will miss that class with all my heart,” she said.

Her final thanks went to her parents. “I love you both with all my heart,” she said, “and I will do my best to make you proud.”

Civic readiness, a mural on MLK Street and a middle school milestone

In keeping with its civic-readiness focus, New Roots highlighted senior capstones and community projects at the ceremony and an earlier awards night.

Senior Ayden Githinji earned the College Acceleration Award for completing 35 college credits through Tompkins Cortland Community College’s CollegeNow program, the most of any student in the class. In a school announcement, Githinji reflected on how New Roots shaped her path.

“I’ve had a lot of opportunities to share my thoughts and my voice during my time at New Roots, and it’s been a great experience for me,” she said. “This school is where my interest in civic engagement stemmed from, and all my experiences here have landed me a job as I enter college.”

Beyond college credits and awards, Nilsen-Hodges pointed to a recent artistic project that was completed this past spring. A group of our seniors participated in a collaboration with Ithaca Murals and local artist Terrance Vann to create a mural on the corner of MLK Street and Cayuga, just across the street from the school.

“The lead student organizer, Ayden Githinji, is an exceptional artist who created and developed her own business as a jewelry maker while in high school, and who was recognized with the Kirby Edmonds Award in 2025 for her social justice work,” Nilsen-Hodges said. “The mural reflects the school’s mission and vision of a vibrant, sustainable Ithaca.”

Keynote speaker Caleb Thomas, founder of Ithaca Murals and a New Roots parent, told graduates he has known the school “since before it opened,” recalling the early planning meetings where a group “imagined something that didn’t exist yet here in Ithaca.”

“They imagined a small school with a big vision,” he said, “a school committed to growing students for a just and sustainable future. A place where learning wasn’t just about information; it was about relationships, curiosity, compassion, creativity, participation, community.”

“Looking around this room today, we get to see this dream alive,” Thomas said.

He told students that one of the things he loves about New Roots is that “it reminds us that learning is much bigger than classrooms” and happens when people “have the courage to show up,” listen, ask questions, learn others’ stories, travel and try again after mistakes.

Parent and staff member Babbs Bergner said an artificial intelligence researcher she heard recently insisted there are three things AI will never do for us: connection, empathy and creativity.

As a New Roots parent, Bergner said she “can’t express how much New Roots has affected us.” She described watching her child foster close friendships and find belonging and shared interests.

“If you ever feel lost,” she said, “remember that you know how to create community, make deep connections and advise and lead.”

Nilsen-Hodges told Tompkins Weekly that, for her, the 15th graduating class carried another milestone: it shares the year with New Roots’ first middle school promotion ceremony, for the Class of 2030.

“It was moving to reach the milestone of watching our 15th class graduate, on the same day as our promotion ceremony for the Class of 2030,” she said. Alumni and former staff returned to celebrate, underscoring, she said, “how the relationships young people develop at New Roots carry into their lives beyond high school.”

Ithaca High School: “Let’s get lit” and the work of kindness

At Ithaca High School, principal Caren Arnold began her first commencement as principal by thanking the long list of staff it takes to stage what she noted was the 151st graduation in the school’s history.

She pointed out that this year’s event marked the first time since 2019 that the entire class gathered for a single ceremony.

“To the class of 2026, congratulations,” she told students. “We are honored to be here with you as you celebrate all that you have accomplished and all that lies ahead.”

The talented group of graduates has earned its share of accomplishments. Arnold announced last fall that 25 seniors — up from 15 in 2025 — were named Commended Students in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program, their performance on the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test placing them among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2026 competition.

Arnold reached back to her first day with students — the fall tradition of Senior Sunrise at Moresco Stadium — to describe the character of the class. She remembered a student with “remarkable class spirit and the ability to bring people together” who grabbed the microphone to send classmates off to their first day of senior year.

“With great enthusiasm, he ended his speech just before the seniors headed to their day of classes by shouting, ‘Let’s get lit,’” Arnold said. She admitted that her “eyes must have widened,” until a class advisor reassured her that the phrase meant something very different than it had when they were teenagers.

“What I discovered over the course of this year was that you, the class of 2026, were truly lit in all the best ways,” she said.

“You brought energy, you brought spirit, you brought enthusiasm,” Arnold continued. “Most importantly, you brought your kindness. … I saw it in the hallways, I saw it in the classrooms, I saw it on stage, on the fields, during lunch period, in each courtyard,” she said. “I saw you making room for one another, I saw you cheering each other on and helping create a school culture where people felt that they belonged.”

Phones away, heads up and hacky sacks in the hallways

Arnold acknowledged that the year brought significant changes, including what she called a “bell-to-bell cell phone ban.” She said she knew “not everyone loved it,” but argued that “something remarkable happened.”

“Heads came up, conversations happened, people made eye contact,” she said. “Students played cards, board games and, yes, an impressive amount of hacky sack.”

“The sounds of actual conversations returned to our hallways and lunch spaces,” Arnold said, adding that the Class of 2026 “helped lead the way through that change, and our school is a better place because of it.”

She also credited seniors with bringing back pep rallies after a long absence, noting that the “energy, the laughter, the competition, and the school pride reminded all of us what makes high school special.”

As she closed, Arnold circled back to the phrase that had startled her in August.

“Being lit isn’t about a phrase; it’s about bringing light,” she said. “And you, the Class of 2026, have done exactly that. You’ve brought light to Ithaca High School through your kindness, your leadership, your spirits, your talents and your willingness to care for one another.”

“Now go out into this world and keep it lit,” she told them.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world”: A student challenges classmates to live, not just exist

Student speaker Leo Holloway, chosen by the class to speak, urged classmates to see graduation as both culmination and starting point.

“You and I both see a vast sea of students who will today finish the longest journey of their lives so far,” Holloway said, calling the achievement “the product of a chain reaction of achievements and efforts.”

He asked seniors to imagine their education as ripples spreading across a pond — the “small ripples of continued effort” by mentors, guardians and peers colliding into “powerful tides” that lifted them to this night.

From there, Holloway pivoted to the question of what comes next.

He cited writer Oscar Wilde: “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist, that is all.” Holloway told classmates that after today, he wants each of them “to go out there and live.”

“There is so much out there in this world to enjoy, so enjoy as much of it as you can,” he said. “Find places of beauty, and enjoy how they are beautiful. Discover passions worthy of love, and find love in them. Live every day like everything matters, and be hopelessly devoted to life, to living.”

Holloway returned repeatedly to kindness, arguing that graduates have a responsibility to choose benevolence even in a world marked by “hate and division.”

“You have boundless love to pour into this world,” he said. “Don’t choose to fill it with cruelty and apathy.”

“If you remember only one thing,” Holloway told his classmates, “remember this: You are responsible for choosing to be kind in a world full of cruelty, choosing to be joyous when it is easy to be miserable, and for you — each and every one of you — you have a responsibility to live.”

“To know you is to love you”: A teacher and father defines excellence as love

History teacher and senior class advisor Peter Kelly, also the father of a graduating senior, was selected by students as the faculty speaker.

He began by addressing his child from the stage and then widened the lens.

“Yes, I speak as a dad,” he said, “but also I speak as a teacher to all you 2026 stars, because to know you is to love you.”

Kelly told students they have come far, not only through four years of high school but from the vantage point of their past 8-year-old and future 28-year-old selves.

“Today, feel pride in your accomplishment. You’ve done it,” he said. “We’re all proud of you. To know you is to love you.”

He described Ithaca as “a place audacious enough to teach you to be emotionally aware, inclusive and altogether stronger by being gentler.”

Kelly distilled his advice into three points: “Go ahead and be your lovable self,” understand that “a great way to be your lovable self is by loving other people” and recognize that “loving other people means being excellent for them.”

He acknowledged that excellence often brings to mind achievements such as “getting into a prestigious college” or “a promotion and more pay,” but he urged students to see it also in “simply taking the next step when it’s called for.”

Kelly noted the temptation, in an uncertain world, to grow cynical and “just get mine.” He quoted New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson: “You’re allowed to think about the worst possible scenario, but you got to go out there and do something about it.”

“My dear stars of the class of 2026, we’ll miss you, but we’re thrilled to see you embark and wish you much fun,” Kelly said. “To know you is to love you, and to love others is to know you are lovable and to know your way.”