Last week, another crop of young people, carefully nurtured and always anguished over, are done with an important phase of their lives.

Again this year, they are an exceptional group.

Islander grads, as we have come to expect, are not typical youth. No, they are not allowed to be ordinary ­— not here. Not in a community that cares about them more than anything else.

Just look at the mountain of accomplishments that Islander grads will pack in their bags to take with them into the world. There are academic achievers galore. The stage was crowded this year with valedictorians and the like. There were awards, scholarships and talent oozing out all over. As we have seen time and time again, those with academic gifts are hard workers who somehow find time to do everything else. Somehow they squeeze in myriad time-intensive activities and log in hundreds of hours volunteering in the community.

But it must be also as clear that Islander students excel in other endeavors that are just as complex and compelling: the dramatic arts, sports, business, languages and visual arts. The students involved in such enterprises as DECA, theater, music, composition, painting, sculpture or dance and design reach well beyond the required quotas of high school. The credit for this lies with the teachers, administration and the parents in this community who are determined that learning at Mercer Island schools goes beyond test scores ­— and give students as many avenues as possible to find out who they are and where their passion lies.

But in the end, the credit lies with the students themselves. For they are the ones who must find it within themselves to conduct their daily lives and dream for the future.

We wish them all the best.