By Alok Ganguly and Kathleen McAleese
PR Manager and Managing Editor
For the most part, students at Westford Academy seem to be engaging, involved, and socially active individuals. This is no different for WA’s newest student by the name of Genevieve Johnson. She is a vocal individual and seems to be attracting the attention of many other students around her, perhaps, in part for her age. Johnson is 94 years young.
She was accompanied by Annette Cerullo, the Westford Senior Center outreach coordinator. Johnson came in contact with Cerullo after the harsh winter left her house with water damage. After striking a conversation with Johnson, who has been living in the same Westford house for 93 out of 94 years of life, Cerullo was privy to Johnson’s sole regret: the fact that she had never completed her high school education.
Johnson was forced to drop out of school in her senior year at the age of 16 in 1936 in order to work at the Abbot Mills to support her family during the Great Depression. Johnson was a mere two and a half credits away from graduating.
“I wanted a diploma, I wanted to know that I finished school. I was very much excited. It means everything to me. It’s what I wanted all my life, to finish school,” said Johnson.
And she came back, returning to WA to complete her lifelong dream of graduating from high school. She will be honored with a diploma at graduation. However, that wasn’t always the case. Because of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in order to graduate from high school a student would need to have passed the MCAS tests with score over 240 on the Math and English test and a 220 on the Science test.
After an outpouring of support from both the Westford and surrounding communities, this policy was waived in Johnson’s case because the graduation requirements were significantly different while she was in school.
For three weeks, Johnson attended school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and attended multiple classes, from English 10 and US History to Acting II and Senior Health Seminar. Johnson attended two of these classes each day, and was escorted by Christina Caviston, Caroline Eliopoulos and Grace Gosselin, all three of whom are currently participating in their senior internships at the Westford Senior Center.
Her experience at WA in ’36 seems stark in contrast to the educational environment that stands today, with her original graduating class of around 25-30 students, an amount significantly less than the graduating class of 2014, which stands at over 400.
School has changed a little bit since Johnson attended as a young adult; she remembers that when she was attending WA, all freshmen had to take a civics class, which was a combination of history and politics. The appearance of students was also different.
“We had short hair, no long hair. I don’t remember anyone with long hair. The boys had to have the nice haircuts,” she said.
No matter the changes in the WA environment, Johnson was welcomed amicably by the students and staff of WA so far and one of her teachers, Rick McHugh, who teaches US History, said, “I’m very excited. It’s a great opportunity for students, it’s a phenomenal opportunity for me to learn from her. She’s coming back and I really admire her for that.”
Students in McHugh’s classroom were also just as intrigued by her presence.
“She actually lived through what we’re learning about so she provides an interesting insight to the class,” said junior Renee Brody.
The upbeat pace of high school life left Johnson exhausted after her first day last Tuesday; she took a four hour nap when she got home.
Cerullo was a driving force behind Johnson returning to WA. She contacted Betsy Murphy, Dean of Students, about Johnson’s wish. After Murphy was able to discuss the endeavor with the rest of administration, she put together a small schedule for Johnson, making sure to construct it around Johnson’s hair appointments which are scheduled for every Thursday morning.
“My first reaction was ‘We gotta do this,’ so I went to Mr. Antonelli and I let him know that this was presented,” said Murphy.
The interns who heard her story were just as excited to get Johnson into their own school environment.
“We had to convince her. We went over and told her ‘You have to come!’ So we had a part in her coming, but it was really Annette, she started the whole thing,” said Caviston.
Johnson never expected to return to WA, but was delighted when she was offered the chance to come back.
“I never expected to come back though, not at my age, because I think I’m a little too old to be doing this. If I was in my eighties it would be a different story but I’m almost 100 […] but here I am. I never thought I’d be here,” said Johnson. “If you go to school you get the education and you feel proud that you finished school. Like I said, stay in school.”
