On a day defined by success, Loran Joseph talked to Baker High School’s class of 2025 about failure.

That innately human, and inevitable, experience.

But Joseph, a 1998 BHS graduate, urged his fellow Bulldogs to focus not on the mistakes that they will make, but rather on the potentially life-changing experience of solving a vexing problem.
“Just knowing that success was an option changed how I approached every problem I’ve encountered since and greatly expanded the number of them I’ve attempted to solve,” Joseph said during his commencement speech on a sunny and hot late Saturday morning, June 7, as 113 seniors received their diplomas at Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium.

Joseph, whose family built the first wind farm in Baker County, described his epiphany.

He messed something up.

Something for which there were no spare parts.

“The replacement was six months away by boat, making our budget and timeline meaningless, dooming the project before it ever generated a kilowatt of electricity,” Joseph said. “There was no other option than to stay up all night throwing every idea and tool we had at in order to make it work by the time the crews came to lift it into the air.”

And it did work.

“The sense of relief that the crisis had been averted, the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that came with being part of the solution and completing what had seemed like a doomed endeavor, was life-changing,” Joseph said.

Joseph told graduates that that singular experience led to others.

“I realized that if I was so afraid of making a mistake that I never tried anything new or took any risks, I would never get anywhere. I learned that I was going to make mistakes, over and over again, but if I corrected them it would be like they never happened.”

Joseph acknowledged that when he was attending Baker High School, and while he was a student at the University of Oregon, he didn’t understand how vital it is to be persistent.

He quoted from a recent commencement speech that TV journalist Scott Pelley gave at Wake Forest University: “You only lose if you quit. Do not settle.”

Joseph said he began to comprehend that concept after solving the wind farm problem.

“That single moment changed everything for me,” he said. “That decision to quit coasting and start getting serious about completing something to the best of my ability no matter how difficult it became created a new trajectory for me and my family that I am only now starting to comprehend.”

Joseph congratulated the students on joining him as a BHS graduate, and he thanked them for asking him to speak at his alma mater.

“Baker High School is very special to me, so this means more than I have words to express,” he said.

He said he remembers “the names of almost every teacher and coach I had here.”

Joseph also mentioned three teachers who have passed away — Erik Johnson, Adriene Oster and Dianne Ellingson.

“What a lasting impact they have had on my life and I continue to try and do them proud,” Joseph said. “By asking me to speak today you honor not only them but everyone who has worked to make Baker High School set so many of our graduates on paths to success, and the reason so many choose to come back to our community to raise their families.”

Joseph concluded by returning to the concept of failure, and the opportunities it presents.

“It is never too late to change and become the person that you want to be,” he said. “Rock bottom looks different for everyone that experienes it because we get to choose where it is for ourselves. If you remember what is important and where you want to be in life, then rock bottom for you will never be that far down.”

BHS principal Skye Flanagan explained to the audience why one seat was empty, save for a gold robe draped across the seat.

That seat, he said, was for Leonardo Loza, who died at age 16 in June 2023 after a series of strokes caused by a brain disorder.

He would have graduated with the class of 2025.

Indeed, he would have sat in that very seat based on the alphabetical seating chart, Flanagan said.

The class of 2025’s three salutatorians and three valedictorians also addressed the audience.

Salutatorian Ethan Fletcher

Fletcher thanked the teachers at BHS, saying “you all made us better people.”

He said he was working on a draft of his speech, with a message along the lines of encouraging his classmates to try to “change the world,” and asked his grandmother to read it.

Her advice was to emphasize not accomplishments, but rather kindness.

“My grandmother is a very wise woman,” Fletcher said. “Kindness is a deeper measure of success. It changes the world, and the power to change the world is already in each of you.”

Salutatorian Sydney Penning

Penning told the audience that when she was 6, her favorite event each week was the arrival of the Schwan’s Ice Cream truck.

The driver, Bob, looked like the archetypal motorcycle rider, Penning said, with an array of tattoos and a shaved head.

He was also an immensely kind person, she said. He delivered not only sweet treats but also compassion.

And money whenever she lost a tooth.

“Bob was my version of the tooth fairy,” Penning said. “It wasn’t the ice cream I cherished, it was Bob.”

Penning said people who exemplify the traits that Bob had “are abundant at Baker High School.”

She urged her classmates to “make our own Bob memories” and “to be the best part of someone’s week.”

Salutatorian Eowyn Smith

Smith said the teachers are BHS were an integral part of each graduate’s success.

“None of us would be standing here now, if not for them,” Smith said.

She talked about how, arriving at the high school on her first day as a freshman, she “felt lost” at the size of the school.

Smith said there’s nothing to fear about feeling lost occasionally, so long as you take time to appreciate life.

During their time at BHS, she said, “I think I speak for all of us when I say that we all have at least found ourselves a bit here at Baker High School. Somewhere between our first book in our English classes to our last moments as high school students, we found something more valuable than words could ever describe. We found a home, a second family, and a place where we belong. Many of us have known each other since we could read. Now look around and see what beautiful adults we have grown into.”

Smith urged her classmates to “be a little kinder than you need to be, be brace, be a little more thoughtful.”

Valedictorian Grant Gambleton

Gambleton told his fellow graduates that their achievement “is a spark that will light up the next chapter of our lives.”

He encouraged his classmates to “do what you want. Travel, take some fire Instagram pictures, buy a car, try not to crash the car, cry a little, maybe laugh a little more. But whatever you do, cherish it.

“So as you leave here today and hopefully attend some grad parties, be fully present in every conversation you have, every hug you give, every handshake you make, and every picture you take. Because this life we are given is a gift, and each and every one of us are beyond blessed to experience it.”

Valedictorian Olivia Jacoby

Jacoby urged her classmates to appreciate the support they have had from the community.

“In Baker, the community is a whole,” she said. “It is complete and absolute, unwavering in the face of any pandemic or threat. It pours into the youth of the community, in turn creating both its own future leaders, and the leaders of other communities. Our experiences growing up may have all been different, but the encouragement we received along the way is the same.

“Today, there are people in the crowd with no relation to anyone,” Jacoby said. “Their only reason to be here is that they, like all of you on the field, are members of this community. And in a community like this, people show up for each other.”

Valedictorian Ashlyn Dalton

Dalton her classmates that graduation “is not your pinnacle, this is not your peak. Your life is just beginning.”

Dalton related the valuable lesson she learned in the locker room at Philomath High School in March 2024, after she and her Baker basketball teammates had lost by one point in a playoff game with a berth in the state tournament at stake.

Dalton said coach Jason Ramos entered the locker room with a smile and a statement: “I’m proud of you.”

Dalton said she understood in that moment that life involves losses — of people, friendships, jobs, even car keys.

“Those losses can’t define you,” Dalton said.

She reminded the graduates that having completed high school, they “are in full and ultimate control of our futures. It’s up to you to build the future you desire.”

She mentioned three classmates — Antonio Washington, Jillian Poe and Alex Wise — noting that although each has accomplished much in high school, their personalities matter more.

“I want you all to be remembered not for what you did, but who you are,” Dalton said. “I can say with full confidence that the best years of your life are ahead.”