A total of 47 Wareham students collected diplomas from Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School on Sunday.

"You came to us in September of 2006 with a dream," Upper Cape Superintendent Kevin Farr told the graduates. "Today, you leave with a career."

Many of the graduates will continue their education, while others will enter the workforce with skills in auto collision repair, carpentry, culinary arts, marine services, and more.

"I'm so happy," Wareham resident Rebecca Hunt said after the ceremony. "I'm finally done with school after 12 long years."

Hunt will begin a career in cosmetology at Ara's Salon and Spa on Cranberry Highway, where she completed Upper Cape's cooperative learning program requirements while she attended classes.

Salutatorian and Wareham resident Asia Roberge gave her fellow graduates one last high school science lesson in homeostasis, comparing students to individual cells, which came together to form a community and now will separate and join the world again.

Roberge asked grads to always remember the lessons learned at Upper Cape. "If we take the time to recognize and practice what we have learned together, both inside and outside of the classroom, I am certain that we will all rise to the challenges of life in extraordinary ways," she said.

A health careers student at Upper Cape, Roberge will study political science at UMass Amherst.

Graduation speaker State Representative Susan Williams Gifford (R-Wareham) told graduates that they didn't have to decide immediately what path to take for the rest of their lives, but to "make sure it leads you to something you love."