Move to Saipan helped shape Toskas

Jonelle Gwyneth Toskas was initially unhappy when her family moved from Rota to Saipan when she was about to start eighth grade at Mt. Carmel School. She now credits her parents’ decision for helping shape her to become the person she is today.

“When I started school at MCS, I had moved to Saipan just three days earlier from the island of Rota, where I had spent the first 13 years of my life. It was a smooth transition for me though,” said Toskas in her valedictory speech during last Saturday’s MCS commencement exercise at the Mt. Carmel Cathedral.

“I’ll never forget my first day when I walked into Mr. Pak’s class during third period and Tawnie shouted to me ‘That’s my new best friend!’ and how C.J. came up to me and gave me a handshake, saying, ‘Hi, I’m C.J., it’s nice to meet you’ and how in music class, Theresa pulled up a chair and we had our first conversation starting with her question, ‘So… what are you?’”

They were little things but they all formed part of her welcome to MCS. “I had my first welcome, made my first friend, and started the friendship with the person who would come to be one of my best friends today. What made my transition to Saipan smooth wasn’t the place, it was the people.”

Toskas, who received a $52,000 scholarship at the University of Minnesota for the fall semester, believes it isn’t college life that shapes one’s life. “People have always told me how college life shapes the life that you will one day live. But I believe your childhood shapes you as well and high school is a major part of that. Because it is your friends and teachers that will help mold you into knowing who you are and for me, I’ve discovered who I am and who the ‘future me’ is at [MCS].”

Toskas will be taking up a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry as her pre-Medicine course and plans to follow in the footsteps of her dad, Dr. James Toskas, a family physician at the Rota Health Center. Her mom is Jocelyn and she has a younger brother, Ari.

Class salutatorian Monica Aira Usi, who is headed to University of California-Irvine, said it was a quote by American talk show host and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey that sticks in her mind: “With every experience, you alone are painting your own canvas, thought by thought, choice by choice.”

“I am my own artist who paints her own canvas through every thought, feeling, and choice. And so far, high school was a big chunky part of the canvas I am painting. While painting my canvas, I tried to find my true purpose, remained driven and inspired, avoided getting a task done with only half of my effort, and pushed myself to give my best all the times.”

Rui Hua Theresa Xu Zheng, Michelle Lin Palacios, Jeff Matthew B. Melchor, Nathanael D. Lim. Cassidy Victoria C. Torres, (honorable mentions Paul Heo and Viveka Rose P. Castro), Shana Marie L. Mafnas, Sook Jun Yun, Jae Hee Lee, Geuel Christian Villacrusis, Min Jung Kim, Erika Marie R. Mendiola, and Amy Rose B. Babanting were the 2018 class’ top honors.