Families and friends packed the bleachers at Cougar Field June 14, as Central Kitsap High School honored the class of 2025 with a graduation ceremony filled with reflections, encouragement, and messages of resilience and self-discovery.

This year’s three salutatorians, Hailey Vaught, Logan Vaught and Gina Hays, each shared insights shaped by their experiences and hopes for the future.

“It is vital that we remember and continue to appreciate all that we have experienced in the time we were given here at Central Kitsap High School,” said Hailey Vaught.

Logan Vaught reflected on the bittersweet transition from childhood to adulthood.

“Maybe our high school experiences haven’t met your expectations, but as Hailey said, it’s important to appreciate the time we spent and the valuable lessons that surfaced from it,” he said. “Without high school, we wouldn’t be nearly as prepared to take on adulthood.”

Hays focused her speech on personal growth and identity, noting how students have spent years meeting the expectations of others.

“We’ve known the kind of people others have wanted us to be, the kind of students our teachers wanted us to be, and the kind of children our parents wanted us to be,” Hays said. “But we get to leave knowing the kind of people we want to be.”

Hays encouraged her classmates to apply the small lessons learned in high school to real-life challenges ahead.

“We’ve been living the tutorial of life,” she said. “All we’ve learned has prepared us for today.”

Senior class speaker Mae Santander urged her peers to be present and grateful.

“My advice to you is to not take anything for granted,” she said. “Don’t try to relive a feeling in the past. Be thankful for the chance to be in that specific moment, and be grateful for the opportunities you’ve been given in this lifetime.”

Principal Alex Chertok, who arrived at Central Kitsap High the same year as the graduating class during the COVID-19 pandemic, expressed his admiration for the students’ growth and resilience.

“We arrived at CK High the same year, wearing masks and standing six feet apart,” Chertok said. “You were nervous about figuring out how to be a high school student, and I was nervous about figuring out how to be an assistant principal.”

Chertok read “The Man in the Glass” by Peter Dale Wimbrow Sr., reminding students that the most important judgment they will face is their own.

“When you get what you want in your struggle for self, and the world makes you king for a day, just go to the mirror and look at yourself and see what that man has to say,” he read. “The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life is the one staring back from the glass.”

Families held cardboard cutouts of graduates as toddlers at the CK High ceremony June 14.