After telling the audience she decided she wanted to go to MAST when she was in second grade, Marine Academy of Science and Technology graduate Abby Hesterhagen said receiving her diploma last month after “ 720 days of school, 56 boat trips, 50 b-schedules, and three previous graduations,” she and her Class of 2024” have made it “to our last time together on Pershing Field.”
Hesterhagen, the daughter of Richard and Megan Hesterhagen of Atlantic Highlands was treasurer of the senior class and gave the closing remarks at the MAST graduation on Pershing Field at Fort Hancock, where she and every other student has marched, drilled, and paraded throughout their years at MAST as members of the NJROTC.
A class officer for all four years at MAST, Hesterhagen also received recognition as Battalion Training Officer for NJROTC and presented the colors at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Holmdel at the final Pass in Review.
In addition to NJROTC, a heavy scholastic workload and her extracurricular activities, Hesterhagen is also a lector at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Highlands and active in her parish.
Now, she told her fellow graduates, “I can’t believe that I am thinking about and especially talking about what happens next as we continue our journeys beyond graduating high school. “
It hasn’t always been easy, she explained to parents, friends, MAST faculty, military guest and school and county officials. “We have been through so much together, from starting freshman year on google meets, looking forward to when we could actually be here on Sandy Hook twice a week, to being outside and on the boat in every type of weather imaginable (with minimal seasickness), getting hypnotized in 77, and signing the anchor together this year. “
It has been an incredible and one of a kind experience for her for those four years, she said. all wanting her to say “ I don’t want to graduate yet.”
However, she pointed out to herself as much as her classmates sitting behind her while she spoke, “these experiences leave us well prepared for a better and more exciting path for the future than we could have paved anywhere else. “
The 60 people behind me right now, she told the group “are the smartest, kindest, and most driven people I know. Our class is now made of researchers, military officers, scientists, engineers, doctors, and more—people that can and will change the world. “People that can change the world because of combined passion and skill; what we have learned during our time at MAST being the strongest force in guiding us to discover and pursue what we love.”
Hesterhagen gives credit to the faculty and other employees at the high school on Sandy Hook. “The people at MAST are truly special. Because of whom we are, being around each other, surrounded by intelligent, compassionate, and dedicated students and teachers every day, our future is bright. We are set up for high levels of success not only because of the incredible opportunities and education we have had at MAST, but because I see everyone around me constantly pushing each other to be the best we can be. “
It’s this encouragement that transforms the drive we needed to get into MAST and takes it to a whole other level as we carry this quality that only MASTies have to college and to create our own successes in our careers and lives. “
The senior, who is a native of Atlantic Highlands, but attended four different elementary schools before starting her freshman year at MAST, pointed out each of the graduates has his own clear, paved path diverging into each graduate’s off-road trails, only wide enough for one person each.. She attended Mother Teresa Regional School from preschool until fourth grade when the parochial school closed and she went to St. Mary’s in New Monmouth for fifth grade and Atlantic highlands Elementary for sixth grade then her final two elementary school years at Henry Hudson.
Determined, practical, effervescent and hardworking, the graduate told her classmates that each graduate’s path involves his own definition of success.
For her, she said, success is finding “something that makes you happy, something that makes you feel fulfilled no matter what other people may feel. It is being able to wake up each day being happy to be wherever you are and looking forward to whatever you are going to do. Success is achieving your own goals and gaining satisfaction for the hard work you have put in. Only we can truly define what success in our lives actually is. “
Success will be far ranging, she continued, and for some will include conducting groundbreaking research, creating innovative designs, or helping hundreds or even thousands of people in need. But there is also success in “meeting incredible friends, being able to pursue hobbies we are passionate about, or spending time in our favorite places.”
As MAST, Hesterhagen continued, “we have gained the tools that will allow us to pursue what we feel success in our lives is, and I firmly believe that our class will continue to carry on MAST’s legacy of success and excellence with the preparation that we have for our separate journeys.
With a bit of melancholy, the graduate concluded “these past four years will always be a part of us. We can all look back on our time in high school and smile, passing stories on to future generations showing how truly amazing MAST is. “Then drawing laughs from the crowd, she added, “ everyone I tell that I go fishing on the boat during school thinks so”
The MAST graduating Class of 2024, according to this member of the class, “cares about each other and our larger community and values pursuit of our biggest goals. We aspire to do our parts in making the world around us better, no matter how we each contribute to doing so. Our time at MAST has shaped all of us into the people we are today, and as we continue on our 61 paths, they will somehow cross over each other, as we reconnect as we pursue our definitions of success.”
The graduate is leaving MAST armed with more than the friends and education she gathered there. Asst the graduation ceremony, she was honored with the Capstone Award for Best Lab Research Practices in Marine Research. Earlier in the week, she was selected Outstanding Senior for Exceptional Leadership and School Involvement, an award presented by Congressman Frank Palone, as well as the Brian D. McAndrew Student Achiever Award, National Merit Scholarship Letter of Commendation, Sustainable Societies Award, Oceanography Award, and the Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish.
In September, she will bring her talents, background and eagerness to always learn to the Florida Institute of Technology where she is double majoring in marine biology and psychology. It comes as no surprise to anyone she received a $24,000 merit scholarship for each of her four years there, where she is enrolled in the honors college.
