[Editor’s note: This story was updated for the Web from the original print version on July 7.]

For a school named after a Cuban salsa legend, one might expect celebratory Latin jams to ring through the hallways on graduation day at the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music.

Instead, in the hours leading up to the school’s graduation ceremony last week, it was more like quiet family time. Soon-to-be graduates donning caps and gowns gathered in the classrooms of the Walton Campus school, enjoying their last few hours as a class. Between rounds of snacks and board games, the students shared their fondest high school memories.

Miguel Molina, 17, one of 70 Celia Cruz graduates this year, said the scene was fitting. He described Celia Cruz as a “place that makes you feel at home.”

His favorite moments of high school, he said, came after the students had performed together in a music competition and shared in victory. “When you play and you finish and the lights go down, you sit back and hear clapping,” he said, “you feel happy.”

Last Thursday, Miguel displayed a snapshot attached to his key chain and motioned to his friends playing Connect Four on the opposite side of the room. His number one memory was “Getting on Kingda Ka with my friends after a competition at Six Flags,” he said, as his friends laughed.

It is no surprise that the Celia Cruz students who share these types of memories and rewards, not to mention the grueling rehearsals leading up to them, have a special relationship.

The students are bound by a love of music. According to Assistant Principal Jerrod Mabry, Celia Cruz accepts students based on musical talent alone, creating a common denominator amongst the school’s 370 students.

Throughout the school year, staffers, many of whom are musicians themselves, help the students hone both their musical skills and report cards.

While the students actively participate in a variety of bands, orchestras and choirs, academics are still central to their experience, Mabry said.

According to insideschools.org, 77 percent of Celia Cruz students graduate in four years, a better rate than most Bronx high schools. “As far as [the staff is] concerned, all of our students are going to college,” Mabry said. “We don’t dumb down our curriculum.”

For some students, music has complemented the academic curriculum.

After a difficult freshman year, Johnny Molina, 19, said he used music as a way to develop discipline, which helped him bring his grades up “dramatically” and pass the Regents exams.

Still, his progress did not end in the classroom. Latin band, jazz band and summer band kept him occupied after school hours. “The music keeps you from doing bad things outside of school,” said Molina. “You stay out of trouble.”

Molina is now looking forward to pursuing a degree in accounting with a minor in music at Lehman College in the fall. “I’m just glad to be here,” he said about graduation. “I had to work my butt off.”

Charlotte Acevedo, 17, said she received a holistic education at Celia Cruz. “It all comes together into one,” she said.

She participated in symphonic band, tutoring, community service, and National Honor Society. She also maintained her grades and graduated with a Regents Diploma.

Hours before her graduation, Charlotte, like her peers, was beaming. She proudly detailed a recent awards ceremony, during which she won a number of awards and finally realized that, in her time at Celia Cruz, she has “done a good thing.”

Charlotte said that although graduation feels surreal, “High school was a great experience,” Her next step will be Lehman College, where she will pursue a degree in Business Administration and a minor in music.

Like Charlotte, many graduates won’t go on to concentrate in music. Mabry said the goal of Celia Cruz is not strictly to produce performers. Rather, it is to create an environment where students can use music to their advantage. “Music is how we get them, keep them, and help them succeed,” he said. “Music can take you places.”

At the graduation ceremony at Lehman College later that afternoon, it became clear that music has already ushered the students through an important phase of their lives.

As the students swapped the spotlight as award recipients and performers, each was met with cheers of “She’s my sister!” and “I love you!” from not just a few friends, but from the group at large.

Johnny Molina said his happiest and proudest Celia Cruz moment came at the beginning of his junior year, when he “realized how much of a bond everyone has.”

“We’re a family,” Chris Sacco, the school’s valedictorian, told his peers and teachers during his speech. “But now it’s time for us to go out and make even more families.”