Throughout the school year, Roxbury Township Public Schools has been working as a community to formalize its beliefs on the ways in which they fulfill their vision of “preparing the children of today for tomorrow” with a special focus on its Gael graduates.

After multiple meetings where the administration garnered the input of community members, Board of Education members, administrators, teachers, and students, they narrowed the focus to six themes that collectively frame the skills and attributes necessary for life beyond Roxbury schools and capture the essence of their Portrait of a Graduate. These include Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Active Citizens, Curious Thinkers, Adaptable & Resilient, and Life Ready. 

These themes were given to Roxbury High School Graphic Design students in Scott Schilling’s class with the responsibility to create a visual representation of the Portrait of a Graduate. 

Students, staff, parents, and community members voted over the past month for the design that would best represent our Portrait of a Graduate.

With more than 800 votes cast, the Roxbury Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools, Loretta Radulic unveiled Melissa Murphy and Olivia Denis’ winning design at the May 20th Board of Education meeting. 

As part of the voting process, Murphy and Denis described how their design came to fruition stating, “For the Portrait of a Graduate design, we came up with a simple and elegant idea. We overlapped a female and male silhouette to represent not only the students in Roxbury but also the community as a whole. The color scheme we chose was blue and gold because they are the true colors of Roxbury. The shield included in the design reflects the strength and protection the community has for each other. To conclude, the words that outline the Gaels shield express what Roxbury provides to its graduates.”

At the Board of Education meeting Radulic shared, “On behalf of the Roxbury Board of Education and the school community, we would like to thank you for your participation in the Portrait of a Graduate design challenge. Your designs demonstrate a level of critical analysis, creativity, and thoughtfulness that is both impressive and insightful.”

Adding, “This design will serve as a symbol for the six themes we value and hope will prepare our students of today for tomorrow. Our graduates will demonstrate their capacity to be thinkers and inquirers, to be adaptable and resilient, to have the integrity, passion, confidence, and work ethic of strong leadership, to incorporate global and social awareness, to communicate civilly and embrace diversity as characteristics of strong citizenship, to have the self-awareness, empathy, interpersonal skills of one with high emotional intelligence, and to have the practical skills, open-mindedness, goal setting capabilities, resourcefulness, and communication of one with solid life-ready skills.”

The students that participated in designing our Portrait of a Graduate included Dennis Benvenuta, Raphael Bernard, Olivia Denis, Matthew Dettlo, Walter Hill, Daniel Huaracallo, Geena Kobylarz, Joseph Mele, Melissa Murphy, Linvia Ong, Evan Santiago, Sergio Soberon Lopez, Derek Opitz, Camryn Taylor-Jones, Jessica Wood, and Hannah Yarznbowicz. 

All of these design students will receive a letter acknowledging their hard work and thoughtfulness as well as a certificate. 

“I hope these small tokens of appreciation will serve to remind them of the important role they played in helping the community find their Portrait of a Graduate,” said Radulic.

All of the designs will be displayed in the Roxbury Board of Education building.