AUBURN – It’s a good system. As 62 Saint Dominic Academy seniors begin their graduation march, the school president is there to give them pep talks while the principal fusses over their collars and caps.

“Go get ’em,” President Donald Fournier tells one student.

“Keep on smiling,” he tells another. “Have fun out there.”

Principal Joline Girourard straightens another cap and the line keeps moving. Suddenly, a student in full robe comes dashing out of a bathroom and rushes to take his place in line.

“It’s OK,” Fournier said. “He’s one of our skaters so he’s fast.”

All part of the magic that is graduation night. By the end of the evening, 62 young men and women left the academy on Gracelawn Road with diplomas in hand.

In her valedictorian speech, Anya Lee told her classmates to hang on tight to their memories of St. Dom’s even as they prepared to leave it behind.

“Take a moment and think back to some of the happiest times in your life,” she said. “Maybe its Boston 2014 or driving across the Mississippi River singing at the top of your lungs, or winning a playoff game, or this moment right now, knowing that we are done.

“Whatever it is,” Lee said, “hold on to that feeling of euphoria. Remember what happiness feels like. For me, I always feel an overwhelming sense of love — both loving and being loved. I feel infinite. I feel like I belong somewhere. Keeping this in mind, we have arrived at a crossroads. This phase of our lives is coming to a close and a new one is beginning.”

Fournier seemed as nervous and proud as any parent in the audience. It was his ninth graduation at the school and he knows every one of them personally.

“This senior class is a very special group of students,” he said in his remarks. “Most of them have been at St. Dom’s for the past five years and I have been able to watch them grow and become young adults through all of their classes, special events and athletic contests. I have been proud to see them handle adversity as well as accomplishments and they will always have a very special place in my heart.”

As is the custom, Fournier then said a word or two about each student, providing insights into their characters as he rolled through the list. A future chef here, a top-notch goalie there, and a student voted to have the best hair tucked in the middle of the group. Fournier described some students as funny, some as athletic, a few as musical and even more as polite and hardworking.

“And that, my friends is a sampling of the talent and personality of the Class of 2015,” Fournier said.

Student Samantha Ladd, in her salutatory address, reflected on the many changes the students have undergone since stumbling into the school as freshmen.

“Most of us entered high school knowing only a handful of our classmates, or knowing no one at all,” Ladd said. “We had yet to be drastically impacted by our new group of peers, and the high school experience. All of us met up at this precipice, the knot in the bracelet, or St. Dom’s. The knot was the point in which our experiences started weaving together, and we began to affect each other’s lives. Our transformation over the past four years is clearly noticeable.”

That sums up the past, but no one was forgetting about the uncertain future that awaited each student after Friday night.

“Finding our ways in the world might prove difficult, especially if what we believe in isn’t popular,” Lee told the graduating class. “But we have already been prepared for this. We have spent copious hours serving others through the school curriculum and extracurricular organizations these past four years. We have learned precisely what it means to put words into action. St. Dom’s has taught us that it isn’t enough to merely say what we think is right and wrong; we must show it in our deeds. This will serve us well as we go out in the world.”

Class facts

Favorite song: “See You Again” by Wiz Kalifa

62: Graduates in the Class of 2015

60: Going to college, including three playing Junior A hockey

1: Going into the workforce

1: Joining the military

How the class will be remembered: “This class is very strong academically,” Principal Joline Girouard said. “They have set high personal goals. … We will definitely miss the seniors’ presence at Masses, assemblies and other school gatherings. Their laughter and sense of adventure is memorable.”