Westover High graduates Class of 2025; salutatorian urges resilience

Westover High School held its commencement for the Class of 2025 at a ceremony in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where Dr. Vernon Lowry, principal of Westover High School, formally conferred diplomas and salutatorian Cody Berry delivered an address urging graduates to be resilient and determined.

The ceremony gathered district leaders from Cumberland County Schools, school staff, families and graduates. Dr. Lowry introduced representatives from the Cumberland County Schools Board of Education and the district cabinet before announcing the class’s honors and leading the conferral of diplomas.

The program noted Mark Waba as the class valedictorian with a reported grade-point average of 4.616 and said he will attend Johns Hopkins University; Waba was not present and was described as traveling abroad in Egypt. Cody Berry, the salutatorian with a reported grade-point average of 4.516, delivered remarks about perseverance and acknowledged his mother, Kelli Berry, for her support. "Being a student at Westover High School requires resilience, determination, and character," Berry said. He closed by reading lines from Maya Angelou: "You may shoot me with your words. You may cut me with your eyes... But still, like air, I'll rise."

Dr. Lowry addressed graduates and families, praising the support systems behind the students and urging decorum during the awarding of diplomas. He repeatedly emphasized perseverance and told graduates: "You were made for this. Even though life almost messed you up, people may have turned their backs on you and counted you out." Near the ceremony’s close, Dr. Lowry invoked state authority when conferring diplomas: "By the power vested in me in the state of North Carolina and the Department of Public Instruction, I declare you graduates from the class of 2025, please turn your tassel."

The event included recognition of graduates who are remembered for the ceremony. Marshals and school staff organized the calling of names and the presentation of diplomas; the transcript lists the full graduating roll called during the ceremony.

The ceremony brought together district officials listed onstage by Dr. Lowry, including Cumberland County Schools Superintendent Dr. Marvin Connolly Jr. and members of the Cumberland County Schools Board of Education, as well as school and central-services leaders. No formal policy actions, votes or budget decisions were taken at the event; the principal’s conferral was a ceremonial, administrative declaration of graduation under state and district authority.

For families and the broader community, the program highlighted both individual academic honors and collective resilience after challenges such as the pandemic, and it concluded with the traditional turning of tassels and applause for the graduates.