Among them sat an aspiring novelist, an award-winning poet, a future math teacher, budding music-producer, businesswoman and food aficionado. The class of 2011 at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School graduated Sunday afternoon to the cheers of friends, family and teachers. With tears streaming down their cheeks and smiles on their faces, they accepted their diplomas and took in the atmosphere around them. They had marched in to Can’t Go Back Now, by The Weepies, though the song was barely audible over the loud applause from the friends, family and teachers in the white tent on the field behind the West Tisbury school campus.

Throughout the afternoon’s festivities one thing was abundantly clear: The school is tremendously proud of this year’s seven graduates. Domonique Aaron, Jessica Dupon, Sasha Iammarino, Brian Luce, Mattia Phaneuf, Erica Taylor and Hannah Vanderlaske are the class of 2011. Standing behind a podium that was draped in a tie-dyed sheet, the school’s director, Robert Moore, told the graduates, “You represent the mission of the charter school.”

Speaking of the school’s emphasis on collaboration, he continued, “interdependence is the foundation of society.”

In the charter school’s tradition, each graduate received a gift from children in the lower grades. The gifts included handmade books by the students personalized for each graduate; a piñata filled with words of wisdom; a ceramic heart that broke in two (half for the kindergartners who gave the gift, half for Ms. Vanderlaske who received it); a homemade apron; a bag of things Mr. Luce might need should he ever go to California, including sunblock and a Beach Boys CD; a “teacher tool kit” for Ms. Dupon; a Bunch of Grapes gift certificate; a collection of poetry and essays; a one-of-a-kind calendar for Ms. Taylor with pictures of herself photoshopped behind the wheel of a series of fancy cars. These gifts exemplified the sense of community that the school emphasizes and the interactions between younger and older students that Mr. Moore refers to often when speaking of the school.

For the third consecutive year a charter school graduate was awarded a scholarship from the Permanent Endowment Fund; the Lumina/Darrell Scholarship and its $3,000 this year went to Ms. Vanderlaske, who will be attending Sarah Lawrence College in the fall. Options in Education, the nonprofit that founded the charter school, awarded each graduate $500 to pursue their education and through Rep. William Keating each student was awarded a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition. The school also presented each graduate with personalized awards whose names often drew laughs and smiles from the graduates and their families. Ms. Iammarino won the Oliver Sacks Humble and Grateful Heart Award and received a copy of the book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. To Ms. Taylor went the Steve Jobs Wild Women Entrepreneurs Award along with a copy of The Da Vinci Method. For Ms. Aaron, the Maya Angelou: She Walks in Beauty Award and a copy of Caroline Kennedy’s new collection of poems, She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems. Mr. Luce received the Rick Rubin-Russell Simmons, Def Jam Records Award and The Art of Music Production. For Ms. Phaneuf, the Alice Waters and Chez Panisse Chef Extraordinaire Award and a copy of the Chez Panisse Café cookbook. Ms. Vanderlaske was awarded the Hemingway, Stein, Beech, etc. Americans in Paris Award and a copy of Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology. And finally, to Ms. Dupon went the Rafe Esquith Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire Award and a copy of Mr. Esquith’s book Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire.

Four students took the opportunity to speak or perform. Ms. Phaneuf played violin and got some laughs when she had to rescue her music sheet from its battle with the light breeze. Ms. Aaron, already published in the Promising Young Poets of 2010 anthology, read an original poem. Ms. Vanderlaske and Ms. Dupon both gave speeches. For Ms. Dupon, “Walking through the front doors feels like coming home.” As she neared the end of her speech, Ms. Dupon grew emotional. “To my class, I want to stress that we’re not starting new lives, we’re not becoming new people, we’re just kicking our ropes and leaping without looking,” she said.

In her speech, Ms. Vanderlaske, an aspiring writer, told the audience, “I would be nowhere near as awesome as I am today without the help of my teachers.” As she ended her speech Ms. Vanderlaske said, “In this school I have truly learned what a community is.”

The graduates then presented the school with their own gift, five tiles for the garden they had painted to spell MVPCS.

Deborah Cutrer, the middle school math teacher, gave the commencement address. Full of jokes, heartfelt words for the graduates, a well-placed Indigo Girls quotation and timely use of a Hallmark card that sang Aretha Franklin’s Respect which drew laughs and claps from the audience, Ms. Cutrer’s speech brought smiles to the graduate’s tear-streaked faces. Ms. Cutrer started off by saying, “I am under the impression that I have the best job on the Island.” She spoke of the charter school’s mission to create self-directed learners and praised the graduates for achieving this goal.

She then singled out each graduate’s achievements and, equally important, their impact on the school’s community and the loss that would be felt with their graduation. Speaking of the charter school, Ms. Cutrer grew emotional as she said, “It’s your voices, the voices of our students, that act as our driving force.” As Ms. Cutrer left the stage with some final words urging the graduates to never forget how much they are loved by the charter school community, Mr. Moore said: “I tell D.C. every day, you’re not going to graduate from this place. You’re staying right here.”

As each graduate’s name was called, cheers and whoops erupted from the audience. Diplomas in hand, the class of 2011 exited to Modest Mouse’s 2004 hit, Float On and the cheers, applause and smiles of their families and friends. As Ms. Aaron said in her poem, “We are the greatest.” On this sunny, cool afternoon, with their community looking on, this year’s charter school graduates certainly seemed so.

This article has been updated from the original to correct scholarship information.