Graduating Seniors Reflect, Impart Words of Wisdom
May 26, 2025
• As high school graduations approach, Needham Local checks in with the Class of 2025.
This Sunday, 415 graduating Needham High School seniors will mark the end of their K-12 education, surrounded by onlooking loved ones and their classmates. The ceremony will be the last time they’ll all be gathered together, making a difficult moment to describe.
A handful of NHS seniors — and one Needham senior at Minuteman High School, who graduates June 6 — shared mixed feelings toward their impending graduation.
After four years at NHS, it’s an experience Ben Fogler could best articulate in the written word. When he authored a series of opinion pieces for The Hilltopper about “Saturday Night Live,” Fogler found it easier to throw his thoughts down on paper, and as an incoming journalism major at Northwestern University, that’s a craft he hopes to hone.
His news feed is filled with equal parts reporting — The New York Times, the New Yorker — and comedy, such as The Onion, McSweeney’s and The Milking Cat, on which he serves as editor-in-chief. Fogler recently interviewed a teenaged comedian for a story for the publication.
Fogler said he finds confidence conducting interviews, and after completing the Medill Cherubs bootcamp through Northwestern last summer, his post-graduate plans seemed set.
“I’m not trying to compare myself to Johnny Carson, but do you know how he was super awkward, unless he had a camera pointed on him and he was in front of the TV?” Fogler said. “It’s a little bit like that where I feel like I’m getting more comfortable when I’m interviewing someone, as opposed to just approaching them.”
Speaking up comes naturally to Rina Fisch, president of Needham High’s Social and Political Activism Club. During the MBTA Communities Act hearings, Fisch and fellow club members advocated for housing reform and connected with the Needham Housing Coalition to campaign for rezoning.
Her involvement in town politics, combined with her personal history, influenced Fisch’s decision to study architecture at the University of Michigan this fall.
“I wanted to make Needham a more diverse and welcoming place for people,” she said. “I grew up in a small apartment building, and it got torn down a few years ago to make room for luxury housing, and that’s in Brookline, and I moved here in fifth grade, so that also sparked my interest.”
Leaving that community behind and moving halfway across the country feels “so crazy,” Fisch said. “I don’t know — so much change at once,” she said.
Graduation feels bittersweet for Becky Hwang, a senior on the NHS swim team who will end her high school career with several top-three finishes. “They’re all my sisters,” she said of her teammates, “and it’s hard, I’m not gonna have them anymore.”
While her swim team will change next fall, the physical pool won’t — Hwang committed to Babson College, where she practiced all four years at NHS and where she attended camps as a kid. She made her commitment official in October.
“It’s just really full circle for me, which is weird to think about too,” Hwang said. “Nevertheless, still very excited.”
During her junior year, Hwang contacted 30 swim coaches about recruitment, and while she had her sights set on a college far from home, one of those coaches was Babson’s. She plans to pursue a technological entrepreneurship concentration when she starts there this fall.
Team camaraderie also defined Will McDonald’s high school experience. As a defensive lineman for the Needham football team, McDonald and his teammates achieved a perfect record and played in the state title for the first time in 13 years.
He, alongside linebacker Aidan Williams and offensive line Charlie Simeone, were all recruited to play football next season at different schools. McDonald said he’ll hold onto his memories at Memorial Field and how they fostered his passion for football.
“I think what made me love it so much was just being able to go on the field with my friend group,” he said. “That made me love the sport.”
McDonald heads to West Point to play for Army, where he hopes to prepare for a potential career in national security or adjacent field.
When asked to reflect on her last four years, senior Mila Piatkov laid out the positives and negatives: Needham High imparted life lessons and technical skills, but as an incoming biomedical engineering major, she said she wished to have more exposure to STEM classes and the ability to better customize her education.
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Before classes start, she’ll move down south to Georgia Tech, where more than 20,000 students were enrolled in engineering last fall — 33% of them being women.
Piatkov pursued her music and arts hobbies outside the classroom, making room for other coursework. She served as president of the Robotics Club, ran the Women in STEM Club and swam on the swim team with Hwang. Piatkov also played in the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
After attending one of her final classes — with more Advanced Placement tests scheduled later that week — Piatkov said she felt content.
“I’m really happy for the education that Needham has given me, but I don’t think my peak was in high school. I think I have a lot of time to look forward to in college and further on, and I’m more focused on going there than staying in the memories that I made in high school,” she said. “I do think there’s a tinge of sadness from the comfort of high school and moving away from my family… but I’m very excited for graduation.”
Kilian Tennis received specialized classes at Minuteman High School, where he studied design and visual communications and fueled a love for programming. His classes involved website design, 3D modeling and editing and more. “It’s a really nice atmosphere and let me be creative and experiment with what I want to do,” he said.
For his senior project, Tennis is making a comic book, incorporating his fascination with history and diverse cultures into his final high school work.
Tennis is one of just 10 Needham residents graduating from Minuteman this year, out of a 174-student class. The small population, combined with the on-the-job training they receive, created a unique environment, he added.
“I just love the place,” he said. “I would have been a bit more sad if it was junior year, last year, but at this point, I’m just ready to leave Minuteman to get on with the next chapter of my academics.”
Tennis will start at MassBay Community College in the fall, with the goal of attending a UMass school to focus on a law or computer science degree. Digital forensics and working with machinery combines his interests well, he said.
Needham senior Anthony Borrelli said he’ll miss the community feel of Needham, particularly the rapport he’s built with teachers. Stopping by their classes after school or during X-block to talk about anything and everything — politics, philosophy, music, and maybe, not always, class material.
Music became an early love for Borrelli, who first learned piano at 4 years old and now plays nearly a dozen instruments both in and out of school. He sings in the school’s chorale, plays with the chamber orchestra and performs in 13 Seconds, a heavy rock and pop punk band composed of his friends and sister.
AP Music Theory cemented his decision to pursue a music degree in college, now with the crucial skills he can apply to songwriting, music analysis and more. He previously figured he’d major in math — “sometimes people don’t treat music as academic,” he said — but he finds music could lead to a professorship, conducting an orchestra and more.
“I decided to chase my dreams and do music,” Borrelli said. “I love to record my own folk music. I write a lot of songs that are about political and social issues. I think it’s a fun way to combine what I’m learning in school and the real world into music. That’s been really fun.”
Borrelli will take that passion to Harvard University, a stone’s throw away from the Needham Public Schools in which he spent 13 years. Having participated in the Harvard Summer Chorus last year, Borrelli familiarized himself with the campus, picturing himself spending time there singing.
But what advice do the soon-to-be graduates have for future ninth graders entering high school?
Find your interests: “Don’t do anything just for the sole purpose of getting into a college. It gets boring really quickly,” Piatkov said. “I would recommend that the incoming freshman class just try to find something that they’re passionate about and follow that passion.”
Pause and reflect: “I worked really hard during my high school career, but I do wish that sometimes I stopped and smelled the roses a little more and had some more time to reflect on what I’ve done,” Borrelli said.
Savor the mundane: “In the moment, you’re gonna want it to be over, but you have to stop and think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and think about how you might actually miss the routines you do every day, the people you see in the hallways every day,” Hwang said. “Hold on to it, because it moves and it’s not going to be there forever.”
Dip your toes in it all: “Try everything. Don’t tie yourself to one thing and think that that’s going to be who you are,” Fogler said. “Don’t feel tied to one friend group. Put yourself out there.”
Believe in yourself: “Don’t sell yourself short, and know that you can always try to make change, because it’s honestly really fun to get involved,” Fisch said.
The Needham High School graduation ceremony will air on The Needham Channel on Sunday, June 1 at 5 p.m.
