Climb To The Top No Easy Task For Freedom Valedictorian

Taravat Tarahom didn’t get to bask in the glory of being Freedom High School’s Class of 2020 valedictorian, thanks to the outbreak of Covid-19 cutting short her senior year. Nor did she get to give her speech in front of a throng of her classmates in an arena, instead settling for a safe and socially distant recorded message.

What Taravat says she did get out of being Freedom’s valedictorian, however, was a life-altering accomplishment at the end of what, at times, was an extremely difficult journey.

“This has taught me to look at one goal, but not make (that goal) my entire life,” the 18-year-old says. 

She was able to balance a huge school load, deal with the divorce of her parents and the death of her dog, as well as a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes, all while unexpectedly rising to the top of her class.

Taravat walked away from Freedom with a greater appreciation of her relationships and health and with the piece of mind that comes from learning how to stay prioritized.

“The experience definitely changed me,” says Taravat, who finished with a 7.64 weighted grade-point-average.

Leyla Mohebbi, her mother, says she couldn’t be more proud. She says academics have always been a priority in her home, where bringing home a B meant you would be asked, “Why not an A?”

“I feel like Tara put the expectation onto herself that she did not want to be anything less than a valedictorian,” Leyla says. “I’m very happy. I knew that was her dream, and she made it happen.”

Taravat has followed in the footsteps of her sister Targol, who was Freedom’s valedictorian in 2015 and is now in medical school at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale. Taravat says she felt the bar was “set impossibly high” before she even started high school. She faced a steady climb up the academic ladder, ranking only around No. 25 in her class after her sophomore year.

She remembers moving up in the class rankings after the first semester of her junior year, somewhere into the teens, and her determination to become the second valedictorian in the family was growing. 

She mentioned to some of her classmates and her teacher in AP Biology that she was going to go for it, and they laughed, because she still had more than a dozen students to pass. 

“That set something off in me,” Taravat admits.

A former cheerleader, she started her senior year ranked No. 7 in the class, but once her summer grades were input into the system — “I had a crazy workload that summer” — she had quietly risen to No. 3. But, she stayed under the radar, and continued to take a heavy load.

Taravat, who was co-president of the school’s Sierra Club, says a typical day in the fall of her senior year would entail waking up at 7 a.m. for six hours of school at Freedom, then coming home around lunchtime to eat and pack herself a dinner, and working for three hours as an online tutor, driving to the Hillsborough Community College (HCC) Ybor City campus for a three-hour English class and then heading over to the HCC campus on N. Dale Mabry Hwy. for physics lab. 

In February, she found out it was official — she had quietly risen to the top of her class. She called Leyla. They cried.

Even More Challenges

The hard work did not come without a cost, however.

In December, she had lost 15 pounds and spent two days in the hospital, where she was diagnosed with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. “I was so wrapped up in school I didn’t even pay attention to my health,” Taravat says. “I was kind of mad at myself for not noticing.”

Her diagnosis has triggered an interest in endocrinology, which she hopes to study at the University of Florida. She plans on majoring in microbiology and cell sciences.

And while her valedictorian speech wasn’t delivered to a crowd of her classmates, it did come from the heart. Without the trials and tribulations of her senior year, it might have been a completely different speech.

“Remember this,” she told the Class of 2020. “If you fall: get back up. It’s clichĂ©, I know, but get back up. Don’t allow setbacks to steer you off your natural path. Don’t let a single failure ruin those deep-rooted hopes and dreams. Because ultimately, rock bottom could be the solid foundation that you build the rest of your life on.”

Outside The Box, Inside The Pod?

Although Hillsborough County is giving parents three choices for the upcoming fall semester, it really comes down to two choices — learn in a traditional classroom with other students, restoring the social interaction and face-to-face contact that are the stalwarts of education; or learn in a more isolated and individual-based online format at home that makes it easier to avoid contracting the virus and transmitting it to others.

However, there is a group of local parents considering something else — merging the classroom and online settings together in a unique collaboration that, they believe, will offer the best of both worlds.

Tampa Palms resident Jenni Wolgemuth, an Associate Professor of measurement and research at the USF College of Education and mother of a first- and fifth-grader, is helping to organize a group of 4-5 families whose children will learn online, but will learn together in a small “learning pod” overseen by a privately hired learning support specialist.

“A one-room school house,” Wolgemuth calls it. “It is an attempt to create a bubble around a group of families, all agreeing to similar standards of social distancing.”

That school house, or learning “pod,” that Wolgemuth has organized will have nine students in it. Four of the students are fifth graders, who would hopefully have the same teachers at the charter school they all attended last year.

The pod also will include two first-graders, a third grader, an eighth grader and a ninth-grader. The parents would rotate hosting and the kids would bring their lunches and eat together and have time for outdoor activities together, too.

Everyone would still be taught by their school’s teachers through the online platform and Zoom video classrooms used by their schools. However, the parents are already interviewing people to be a support specialist, who would monitor the pod from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and help the students with technology issues, staying on task and doing their assignments.

“Basically what we would have been doing if we had been home,” Wolgemuth says.

The idea was Wolgemuth’s brainchild and she says she began thinking about the learning pod solution before the Hillsborough School District issued its choices for parents. She thought the District was too comfortable with the idea that everything would be fine by August. “I’m a planner,” she says. “This was my plan A.”

She mentioned the concept to friends, but the response, at first, was tepid. She continued, however, to bring it up in conversations.

When she had a Zoom call with other parents after the choices were revealed by the District, there was still some hesitation. During that call with other mothers, however, one of the husbands, a doctor who works with Covid-19 patients, overheard the plan.

“That is a really good idea,” he said, and the plan started to take root.

There are still hoops to jump through for Wolgemuth and her group, which includes a second Tampa Palms family, two families from Lutz and another from Carrollwood. 

They will have to see how the pod works for the younger students, namely the two first graders. And, having nine or so computers using the same WiFi network could create issues that would need to be addressed.

Otherwise, Wolgemuth thinks the idea is the best fix for one semester, with the hopes that the coronavirus can be brought under control and that everyone can go back to their brick-and-mortar schools in January.

School Notes: New Tampa’s Rowan Excels At King

Pebble Creek resident Adam Rowan was one of King High’s top students.

As Pebble Creek resident Adam Rowan graduates from the International Baccalaureate (IB) program at King High on N. 56th St. in Tampa, he has a long list of accolades.

National Merit Scholarship Finalist.

National Hispanic Scholar.

Captain of the King soccer team.

Co-captain of the school’s tennis team.

Perfect score (36 out of 36) on the ACT.

Even with all of these accomplishments, the thing Rowan he says he’s most proud of is his role as the event lead for his school’s 2019 Relay For Life, benefiting the American Cancer Society, which he says, “raised just shy of $70,000 and had 500 students participating.”

Back when Rowan chose to go to the IB program at King, his dad, Mike Rowan, was the principal there.

“Him being there was a reason for me not to go there,” says Adam, “rather than a reason to go.”

Just about the time Rowan got used to seeing his dad walking the halls of his high school, his father became the principal at New Tampa’s Wharton High, just a quick ride from their Pebble Creek home.

Adam says it was an adjustment having his dad at a different school, but that he never reconsidered his decision to attend the King IB program.

“At that point, I was committed to the IB program and had done too much work to drop out,” he says.

However, Adam concedes he got the short end of the stick on commute times.

“I was leaving before him to drive to school, but he had to be at school before me,” he says. “I felt like I was getting no sleep compared to him.”

The lack of sleep and dedication to academics, sports and community service paid off when Rowan was accepted to prestigious Columbia University in New York City.

He says he toured the campus twice prior to applying and loved the feeling of it, the fact that it’s located in New York City, and that its Ivy League status means the curriculum will be rigorous.

“I liked being there,” he says. “I got a good vibe.”

That good vibe was so strong that he applied for early admission at Columbia. When he was accepted last fall, his decision to attend was binding and he had to decline his acceptance to University of South Florida and rescind the application he had submitted to the University of Florida. 

He knew he didn’t want to go anywhere else.

Now, Rowan hopes he’ll be able to be on campus at Columbia in the fall. He thinks he’ll study political science, but also says he might change his mind before he’s required to declare a major his sophomore year.

While he won’t be playing any NCAA sports, Rowan says he can’t imagine life without soccer — he is a defender/midfielder and last year helped King to a 13-6-5 record in Class 5A — and is hoping to play on an intramural team at Columbia.

That, of course, is contingent on intramural sports being offered, and the Columbia campus being re-opened for in-person classes.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to go yet,” Rowan says. He is currently awaiting the official plan for reopening the campus, which is expected to be released on July 1.

As he makes plans to attend college in the heart of a city that has been so harshly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, Rowan  says he’s not too worried.

“I’m a little nervous, but I feel like going to college up there, or even if I went to college here in Florida, it’s still a risk,” he says. “I won’t let it stop me.”

Clark Gets New Principal

Delilah Rabeiro was named the new principal at Clark Elementary in West Meadows, replacing Paulette English, who moved to Pride Elementary in K-Bar Ranch earlier this school year.

Rabeiro’s appointment was approved at the Hillsborough County School Board meeting on June 9 and becomes effective on July 1. She was one of 34 principals given new assignments by new Hillsborough Superintendant of Schools Addison Davis.

Rabeiro was most recently the principal at Robles Elementary on E. Sligh Ave. in N. Tampa.

Cotey Repeats As Champ!

Jonathon Cotey, who attends Middleton High but lives in New Tampa, recently won the first-ever  ESports District Championship hosted by Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS).

The 16-player Super Smash Bros. tournament, completed online due to Covid-19, was the culmination of a year-long season in which players from nearly 20 high schools competed against each other at neutral sites. 

Cotey, who plays under the gaming tag BionicLettuce and was seeded No. 2, defeated top-seeded Nicholas Eisman (Nerva) of Plant High 3-2 in the best of five series, despite dropping the first two games.

“This has been a work in progress for five years,” said Robert Dodson, ESports Club Sponsor at Middleton High. “If it was this popular during quarantine, I can’t wait to see how big this can become in the future.”

School News: Lots Of Awards To Go Around

Isabella Douglas

Wharton senior Isabella Douglas was awarded a $500 scholarship and the Wharton Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) program received $1,000, thanks to an essay Isabella wrote for a nationwide NJROTC contest.

The Surface Navy Association (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit Association incorporated in 1985 to promote greater coordination and communication to those in the military, business, and academic communities) offered the contest to NJROTC cadets across the country, choosing Isabella’s entry as the most outstanding nationwide. The award was provided as an incentive to “engage NJROTC cadets in understanding and appreciating the sacrifices of our WWII veterans, Navy core values, and what it means to be a shipmate.”

Isabella will use her award while attending the University of Florida in Gainesville, where she plans to major in journalism.

Although her current plans don’t include joining the military, Isabella comes from a military family. Her mom was in the U.S. Army and her dad was in the U.S. Coast Guard.

She credits Wharton’s NJROTC program with teaching her important life skills. “It taught me how to be a better leader, to be more organized, and (how) to talk in front of a lot of people.”

Isabella says she was excited to hear that her efforts not only benefited her, but also the school’s NJROTC program.

“I was really glad about that,” she says, “because it’s my last year and I was happy to give back to the program.”

National Merit Scholars Announced

New Tampa’s residents Arpan Bagui and Shezad S. Shah were named as $2,500 National Merit Scholarship winners by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) on May 13.

Bagui lives in K-Bar Ranch and attends the IB program at King High and is looking to study investment banking in college, while Shah is a Wharton senior who plans to study computer science in college.

Arpan Bagui

The $2,500 Merit Scholar designees were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 finalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program. 

National Merit $2,500 scholarship winners are the Finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors. 

Scholars were selected by a committee of college admissions officers and high school counselors, who considered the academic record (including the difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned). scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQTÂź), contributions and leadership in school and community activities, an essay written by the Finalist and a recommendation written by a high school official. 

New Tampa PTAs/PTSAs Recognized

The Hillsborough County Council PTA/PTSA announced its award winners for the 2019-20 school year via Facebook Live on April 24, and New Tampa schools, especially Liberty Middle School and Hunter’s Green Elementary (HGE), fared well.

In fact, both were honored with awards for Principal of the Year.

Gaye Holt

HGE principal Gaye Holt was awarded Elementary Principal of the Year, while James Ammirati of Liberty took home the middle school honors.

Both schools also received awards for Family Involvement; Hunter’s Green Elementary for its lip synch battle called Panther Jamz, and Liberty for its Family Night event.

Liberty picked up eight other awards, including Middle School Instructional Person of the Year for teacher Toni Kuzmicki, PTSA President of the Year for Shari Burress, “a force to reckon with, as she powers her way through the school year taking on tasks and challenges and working harder than anyone else” according to her nomination.

At the high school level, both Wharton and Freedom received awards for their Volunteer Hours.

Wharton also received an award for Student Involvement and the county award for Advocacy/Legislation for the school’s Gay Straight Alliance.

The school’s success coach Roslyn Brown was awarded High School Non-Instructional Person of the Year.

Brown puts in long hours that do not stop when she leaves our school,” her nomination letter said. “She is always working to better the lives of our student population.”

Freedom won the award for Family Involvement for its Multicultural Festival — “Diversity at its Finest” —  and Alicia Newcomb, the school’s agriculture teacher, was named the High School Instructional Person of the Year.

According to her nomination, Newcomb created the school’s vet tech program, an agribusiness course, expanded the Future Farmers of America (FFA) program and helped students earn apprenticeships and certifications, while partnering with veterinarians and animal rescue organizations to provide students with hands-on experience.

High School Graduations

While graduations across the country have been cancelled altogether, Hillsborough County Public Schools has instead delayed graduations for the class of 2020 in the hopes that local and state guidelines will allow in-person graduation ceremonies in July. Dates have been set for July 13-22 at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall. 

A final decision about whether the graduations can be held will be made closer to the event date.

For now, Wharton’s graduation is scheduled for Friday, July 17, 12:30 p.m., while Freedom’s is scheduled for Saturday, July 18, 9 a.m.

Tampa Palms’ Phoebe Funai Is Tops In Her Class

Phoebe Funai’s high school resume is impressive. At Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High on N. Central Ave. in Tampa, the Tampa Palms resident is the captain of the cheerleading team, a member of five honors societies — including the National Honor Society — as well as the founder the Social Studies Honors Society and the student government vice president. And, thanks to her weighted grade point average of 8.72, Phoebe also is the Brooks DeBartolo Class of 2020 valedictorian.

However, her most impressive feat might be this:

She goes to the gym six days a week, and hadn’t missed a single 45-minute workout in a year and a half until everything shut down due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Every! Single! Day!

“She would go on Sunday too, if they were open,” says her mother, Maryanne.

It’s really no wonder, then, that Phoebe has an abundance of the dedication and commitment it takes to be a class valedictorian at any school.

“I would say it takes a lot of work, a lot of personal motivation and always staying focused towards your goals,” Phoebe says. “But, it’s something I enjoy. I love school.”

Born in Ohio, Phoebe’s family moved to New Tampa in the middle of her seventh grade year. She attended Liberty Middle School, but when it came time for high school, instead of enrolling at Freedom, Phoebe decided she wanted to attend a smaller high school like Brooks DeBartolo, which has roughly 600 total students across its four grades.

She signed up to be a cheerleader, and dove right into her studies. She had already earned some high school credits at Liberty, and her freshman year, she noticed she was second in her class.

“Phoebe had her eye on the prize from day one,” Maryanne says.

Phoebe started taking dual enrollment classes at Hillsborough Community College her sophomore year. Every semester, she took at least three dual enrollment classes, and will graduate with 109 college credits. She also took eight AP classes, joined student government and, in her junior year, started a local chapter of the Rho Kappa Social Studies Honors Society at Brooks DeBartolo.

Under Phoebe’s leadership, Rho Kappa members at the school recycled American Flags, volunteered at Metropolitan Ministries and Feeding Tampa Bay, and read books and made Valentine’s Day cards for the residents of Discovery Village at Tampa Palms, an assisted living facility.

“I took as much as I could take without being too overloaded,” Phoebe says. “Class valedictorian wasn’t about just being first in the class, it was about developing a work ethic and seeing how much I could accomplish in my four years of high school.”

She says her favorite class was AP psychology; her strongest classes were math — she took eight math classes at HCC, and plans to major in finance to study things like data analysis in college.

Choosing a college was a hard decision, she says. She went back and forth between the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where her father Edmund, a high risk-obstetrician/gynecologist, went to school, and the University of Florida in Gainesville.

She decided to become a Gator, and says through the school’s combined degree program, she’ll be able to earn both her undergrad and Master’s degrees in four years.

The last five years she has volunteered teaching dance at the New Tampa Recreation Center in Tampa Palms, and hopes to join a dance team in college.

When Phoebe says she is going to do something, you can rest assured, says her mother, that it will get done.

“Honestly, she has a really positive, outgoing personality,” Maryanne says. “Challenges don’t scare her. She likes to try new things, she’s very dependable, and she’s one of those people that just shows up, no matter what. She always shows up.”