THE LAST WORD:

Each of the last two years, the Daily Pilot has celebrated graduation in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District by running 10 student profiles on the morning of commencement: two students — one male and one female — from the senior class of each of the district’s five high schools.

The intent of the package is not to honor the two highest-scoring students at each school, or the two most popular, or the two heading to the most prestigious universities.

The 20 students the Pilot has profiled so far have been a broad mix — some valedictorians, some students who emigrated from foreign countries, some who nearly dropped out in the ninth or 10th grade and found the right mentors to help turn them around.

Reading the stories of these students proves, if we need reminding, that there’s no one definition of success.

For some, learning to read and write English or overcoming an illness can be just as demanding a task as scoring a perfect SAT.

That’s especially important because, in the grand scheme of life, high school is only the opening act. The skills these students have learned in the last four years — perseverance, daring, self-motivation — will serve them in countless ways as they venture to college and beyond.

Congratulations to the Newport-Mesa class of 2008. And we hope this isn’t the last time we’ll see their pictures in the newspaper.