A Passion for Creativity and Achievement Defines Pierson Graduating Class of 2023

A passion for creativity is one of the defining features of the Pierson High School Class of 2023.

Both valedictorian Emily Hope Squires and salutatorian Griffin Greene are planning on seeing where their creative energies take them in the fall, when they head to college. Squires will study visual communications and marketing at the University of South Carolina’s Honors College, which is the top-ranked honors college in the country. Greene, meanwhile, is headed to Fordham University, where he plans to study film.

Many college-bound students are still unsure about what they want to major in, or the career they want to pursue.

That’s not the case for Squires, who has shown she has an entrepreneurial, self-starting spirit at a young age. In addition to devoting the time it takes to get the kind of grades that put her at the top of her class, Squires has already started not one, but two companies. She has her own media company, The World By Em, where she provides video and social media content-creation services for small businesses, as well as social media management, and she also has an Amazon storefront, “This Is Sunshine Co” where she sells T-shirts, sweatshirts and other apparel with self-created designs meant to promote mental health and awareness around mental health issues.

Squires was drawn to South Carolina’s Honors College because of her love for the area, and the great opportunity the school provides for Squires to pursue what she’s good at.

“I’ve always had a passion for anything creative,” she said. “I love making video and filming and editing, that whole process. The visual communications major is a very unique program that teaches students how to combine film and video editing with content creation for social media and marketing for companies. South Carolina is one of the only schools that has that program.”

Squires said she also loves the warm weather and southern hospitality culture in South Carolina, and in the city of Columbia in particular.

Squires has a clear vision of what she wants to achieve, and where she sees herself in the future, beyond college. She said that vision was crystallized when she visited the campus.

“This is where I’m meant to be, 100 percent,” she said. “South Carolina feels like home. I have grandparents who have a house there. If all goes to plan, I’d like to stay in Columbia and continue down the path I’m on right now, and have my own media company eventually.”

Squires gave credit to Pierson High School’s art program and art teachers for fostering and nurturing her love for the arts and creativity.

“The Pierson art department played a huge role,” she said, giving credit to teachers Joe Bartolotto, Liz Cataletto and Peter Solow. “They were all amazing in helping promote creativity in my grade.”

Squires said the many workshops and other creative endeavors and opportunities funded by the Reutershan Trust helped shape her ideas of what she wants to do with her life.

“Pierson allowed me to explore every field of art possible and get a taste for them all,” she said.

For having the confidence and self-assurance to go after those dreams, Squires credits Hill Street Boxing, where she has been a devoted gym member for several years.

She said people are often surprised to find out that she, standing at just 5 feet 3 inches tall, is seriously into boxing, but she said the boxing training and weight lifting sessions became an outlet for her anxiety starting around the time she was 13.

“It’s a big part of how I got to where I am today,” Squires said.

Like Squires, Greene also credited the Pierson art department and its teachers for supporting his love of film and his desire to ultimately break into the film or television industry.

During his time as a student at Pierson, Greene has been an active participant in art and film workshops, a member of the National Honor Society and Model UN, and has also been part of Pierson’s varsity cross country team.

He said he is looking forward to the “adjustment phase” of moving from a small town to a big city, but said he fell in love with Fordham instantly after doing a campus tour, saying the campus felt like “a safe haven among the rest of the city.”

A career in the film or television industry is the ultimate goal for Greene, who likes to express himself artistically in a variety of ways, from drawing to writing to film editing. Possible career paths as a producer, director, television or screenplay writer and more are all on the table. Greene said his parents helped foster a love for film early on, and he fondly remembers falling in love with Pixar movies like “Toy Story” as a child, then loving the original Spiderman movies. He listed “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Little Miss Sunshine” as some of his favorite movies.

“I like how those movies really made a connection with the audience in a personal way,” he said “The way it moves you, it’s something you want to try to replicate.”

Squires and Greene are the standout students in a group of 61 graduating seniors that Pierson Middle High School Principal Brittany Carriero describes as a motivated and talented group. Of the 61 students, 85 percent are headed to college in the fall, and 29 of them were inducted into the National Honor Society. It’s a community-minded group, that totaled more than 1,180 hours of community service, collectively, in roughly two years’ time.

The class includes a graduate of the Academy of Applied Technology, Joe Rice, who studied culinary arts, and an Eagle Scout, Robert Stewart, who received the Suffolk County Public Service Award for his dedication and commitment to service and community.

The class included musicians who performed in the school’s band and jazz ensemble as well as vocalists who competed at NYSSMA. Pierson’s First Robotics team took part in the national First Robotics competition in Houston, Texas, against 700 teams from 14 countries and all 50 states.

The class includes outstanding athletes as well, such as Gold Key Award winner Meredith Spolarich. The Gold Key Award is the highest honor in Section XI (Suffolk County) that an athlete can receive for sports participation. The Section XI Gold Key Award goes to students who have lettered in eight seasons on varsity or junior varsity teams between their sophomore and senior years.

The class of 2023 completed 550 college applications to 242 separate colleges, with students heading off to study pre-pharmacy, pre-vet, those with law school dreams, and more.

The unifying theme is high achievement and dedication to pursuing dreams and career paths, but the class has a diverse range of plans and goals, not all including the traditional four-year college track.

Senior David Giraldo has always loved working with his hands, and has decided to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and pursue a career in the HVAC industry. He was the recipient of the Construction Trades Scholarship from the Lions Club which is part scholarship and part mentorship. Giraldo studied HVAC at the Academy of Applied Technology at Ward Tech for one year, and will be working for local HVAC company Hamptons Quality.

Being enrolled in the BOCES program during his senior year helped solidify Giraldo’s decision to go into a trade rather than go to college, and he said he thinks the industry will be a good fit for him. He credited his brother for providing mentorship, as well as Gene Phillips, the owner of Ace Hardware in Sag Harbor, who died recently. Giraldo worked at Ace and he said Phillips helped bolster his love of tools and being handy.

In addition to enjoying working with his hands, and feeling like he has a natural knack for it, Giraldo said he likes the feeling of satisfaction that comes from being able to fix something mechanically, and install systems that are important components of peoples’ homes.

“I like to feel dependable,” he said. “I like knowing that people can depend on me to fix something.”

Senior Gavin Gilbride will become someone his country can rely on.

The senior had originally eyed a career in law enforcement, but decided to enlist in the U.S. Air Force after a National Guard recruiter came to Gilbride’s law enforcement class at BOCES last year. Gilbride said the idea of enlisting in the military had always been in the back of his mind, but said the recruiter made it seem appealing enough to take the leap.

After researching different branches of the military, he settled on the Air Force. He will report to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, on August 22, which will last roughly eight weeks, before he goes to tech school, where he will study what it takes to be part of the security forces division in the Air Force.

Gilbride will serve four years on active duty, and then have the option to reenlist or do four years in the reserves. He is still considering an eventual career as a police officer, or potentially owning his own security company.

Gilbride seems to be a good fit for military service. He was a standout athlete at Pierson, playing four years of varsity baseball and two years of varsity soccer as the starting goalie on the Whalers’ Long Island Championship team. He’s been spending the early days of the summer working as an umpire for local Little League games.

Gilbride said he will miss his hometown and his friends, and the memories that were made, from bus rides to games, to “hanging out in class goofing off.”

“Pierson will always be a part of me, and Sag Harbor is part of who I am,” he said.

At the same time, he’s ready to make the leap to the next part of his life — literally, if necessary.

When asked if enlisting in the Air Force meant he’d learn to fly an airplane, Gilbride said, “I was hoping to be the one jumping out of it.”