Alumnus Speaks to Students at GSA Assembly

Paul Croce ’97 has fond memories of his time at Rivers.

“I feel lucky I had a blessed high school experience,” he said, addressing students as the featured speaker at the Gay-Straight Alliance assembly Friday, November 12.

The openly gay alumnus reminisced about the things that set him apart from most of the male students he encountered in high school: he listened to Madonna, the majority of his close friends were female, and he was, in his words, “bad at sports.” Nevertheless, Croce remembers Rivers as a place that provides a welcoming environment for every student, and his speech served as a jumping off point for student-faculty discussions in advisory groups last week.

“Almost everyone has had a moment where they felt like things [were difficult],” said science teacher and GSA faculty advisor Kathleen Nicholson. “But then something or someone came along who gradually made things seem a little bit better.”

Making things better was the theme of this year’s assembly, which was largely inspired by the “It Gets Better Project,” a campaign launched by a syndicated advice columnist this fall to deliver a message of hope and support for LGBT youth.

The assembly also featured a video of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles and their supporters singing “True Colors,” but it was Croce’s personal story that struck the strongest chord with the Rivers community. The alumnus praised his alma mater as a place where he discovered friends who embraced him, a love of writing and expression he says became the “backbone” of his current career at MTV Networks, and a lifelong mentor and confidant in the person who opened him up to that sense of expression – English teacher Meghan Regan-Loomis, who introduced him at the assembly.