Terry Tan Turns Vision Into Valedictorian

Freedom High’s 2016-17 Valedictorian Terry Tan is an “old soul,” because sometimes that’s what it takes. Despite being the youngest of two sisters, she has the mature vision and work ethic of someone successfully balancing the pressure of academics with the richness of life.

In addition to being Freedom’s Valedictorian, Terry also volunteers at other schools, works a part-time job, plays sports and yet, still finds time to relax.

“I don’t like to focus too much on one, specific thing in life,” Terry says. “My goal is to be a well-rounded person.”

The daughter of second generation Chinese immigrants, Terry has discovered balance in her life, in which academics has played a huge role.

She is a member of the National Honor Society (NHS), the Science National Honor Society (SNHS), Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and Mu Alpha Theta, a math honor society.

Terry walked across the stage on May 23 at the Florida Expo Hall with a weighted GPA of 7.27 and unweighted 3.98.

She says that Valedictorian wasn’t even a goal until somewhere in her sophomore year, when she says she first paid attention to it.

“It was something exciting I could pursue,” Terry says. “I knew that if I set my mind to it, I could become Valedictorian.”

It hardly became an obsession, however. Terry went on about her life, and only found out she’d earned Valedictorian honors sometime in January, when some of her friends congratulated her in the hallway at school. She initially asked why they were congratulating her.

“I definitely could not believe it,” she says. “I was very happy. With  all that hard work, it felt really good.”

Terry spent the spring term in the closest thing to a college setting outside of an actual college setting. She took three dual enrollment classes that gave her college-like responsibility. She’ll enter the University of Florida in Gainesville next fall with 31 college credit hours already under her belt.

“Dual enrollment is completely on your own, it’s all based on if you can motivate yourself,” Terry says. “Even with AP classes, you still have your teacher there.”

That setup suited Terry just fine. She says she enjoyed the flexibility and freedom and was able to balance her nine college credit hours, her job (and own personal workouts six days a week) at LA Fitness, track season and volunteering at Chiles Elementary in Tampa Palms and at St. Mark The Evangelical Catholic Church on Cross Creek Blvd.

She ran cross country for the Patriots for three years, as well as the 800 and 1,600 meters and the 4×800 relay on the school’s spring track team.

“You will go insane if you focus on only one aspect, if all your focus is on academics,” Terry says. “What about the other aspects of life that you could be missing out on?”

She strives for perfection in everything that she does. The one “B” she got in high school, a sophomore year pre-calculus class, still gnaws at her.

“I’m also the type of person that when something’s almost perfect but not quite perfect, it becomes a pet peeve,” Terry says.

It turns out that the “B” in pre-calc was the only one she would receive in her high entire high school career. In fact, it was the only one from elementary school on up. However, Terry’s old soul quality she uses for balance keeps her from obsessing over it.

“I feel like the children, my generation of my family, are all more mature and have old souls,” Terry says. “Whereas my mom and dad are really young at heart — they make jokes, they poke fun at me in a sweet way — they’re just goofy and like to have fun.”

They also keep Terry grounded.

“I hope that my, ‘kid at heart’ attitude will continue to remind her ‘old soul’ to slow down and celebrate her hard work,” Terry’s mother Sylvia said.

Terry’s older sister Tammy also attended UF, and is similarly motivated with her own big-picture mentality. Tammy thinks Terry has just scraped the surface of what lies ahead.

“I don’t think Terry realizes her accomplishments are a reflection of how much potential she has in doing even greater things in the future,” Tammy says. “I am thrilled for this new chapter that is coming for her because I want her to finally see her potential come to life.”

Tammy has been a constant source of motivation for Terry, who says her older sister has inspired her and made her mature faster.

Tammy will graduate from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine on the same day Terry graduates from Freedom.

Terry isn’t sure whether or not she’ll follow her sister’s path into a medical profession, as she says she is considering a couple of different fields. She took a microeconomics class her first semester of her senior year and a macroeconomics class at Hillsborough Community College this past semester.

“After those classes, I thought about maybe looking into finance,” Terry says.

On the other hand, she adds, she really enjoyed working with children at the local church and elementary school. Terry says she likes how the field of orthodontics opens up the opportunity to work with children.

“If I do pursue orthodontics, it will be in pediatrics,” she says. “I really love working with kids.”

Whatever field Terry does decide to pursue, you can bet she’ll pursue it with vigor and passion, while always finding time to stop and smell the roses. She says she is grateful to her entire family, including her grandfather — whom she says was a major source of inspiration — for providing the support necessary to accomplish some of the things she has already accomplished to date.

She says they have taught her to, “be yourself, that’s all that really matters.”

What doesn’t matter? That darn “B” from sophomore pre-calculus.

“Ummm, that, B?,” she says. “That’s in the past.”

Pasco Roadway Connections Meeting Draws Interested New Tampa Residents

Based on the number of spirited debates that highlighted the first public meeting hosted by Pasco County planners last month at Pasco-Hernando State College (PHSC)’s Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch, the county’s year-long study looking at three possible roadway connection points between Wesley Chapel and New Tampa should be an interesting one.

The long-debated connection of Kinnan St. in New Tampa to Mansfield Blvd. in Meadow Pointe predictably drew the most conversation.

However, a crowd of more than 100 people milled about while also discussing the potential connection of Meadow Pointe Blvd. to a road in New Tampa’s K-Bar Ranch that is planned, as well as a connection between Wyndfields Blvd. and a road in K-Bar that is not yet approved by Hillsborough County but would eventually link Wesley Chapel to Morris Bridge Rd.

Pasco’s District 2 county commissioner Mike Moore made it clear at the outset that this was a Pasco County project, and that Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa both have nothing to do with it. Moore had met with then-City of Tampa District 7 City Council member Lisa Montelione last year in an attempt to get Kinnan-Mansfield connected, but the Tampa side declined to pay, or contribute to the cost, for any study, he said.

That didn’t stop a good number of New Tampa residents, including Montelione’s replacement on the City Council — New Tampa resident Luis Viera — from showing up to voice their opinions. Viera called the inability to connect the two roads, “government at its worst.”

K-Bar residents Joe and K.D. Ann Avinger were among the New Tampa residents on hand to voice their desire for a connection between Kinnan and Mansfield.

Pasco Roadway Connections Meeting Draws Interested New Tampa Residents

Avinger argued that the fears of Meadow Pointe II residents, probably the biggest opponents to the connection because of concerns about increased traffic on Mansfield, which runs through their community, were unfounded. He said he believes most of the traffic on busy Cross Creek Blvd. would bypass Kinnan and continue to Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. before turning north, especially since the widening of BBD could be completed before any connections are even made.

“Why would you get off a wider street, to get on a 35-mph street that is a further trip and puts you right back on the same road (BBD) you were going to anyway?,” he asked.

The Avingers, who have relatives in Wesley Chapel they like to visit, think the Kinnan-Mansfield connection would be more of a weekend convenience for shoppers going to the malls than a new path for commuters.

Proponents of that connection say it would improve public safety by creating another north-south route connecting New Tampa to Wesley Chapel in case of emergencies, as well as benefitting businesses on both sides.

Opponents cited an increase in dangerous traffic on Mansfield, which already is an important and busy artery in the mornings and afternoons connecting the area to four nearby Pasco schools — Sand Pine and Wiregrass elementaries, Long Middle School and Wiregrass Ranch High. If you add Pride Elementary in K-Bar just beyond where the connection would be made — a point of concern for some New Tampa parents — that’s five schools.

Dennis Smith, the chairman of the board of the Meadow Pointe I CDD, said that he would like to see the connection made.

“We are at loggerheads with Meadow Pointe II,’’ he said.

Smith said it is ridiculous that in the vast area between Livingston Ave. and Morris Bridge Rd., there is only one road — BBD —that goes north and south between New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. Even after listening to all of the debate, however, he still has little hope the connection will ever be made.

“This is my fifth time through this drill,’’ said Smith, who bought his home in 1998. “I’ve been around a long time, I’ve been active a long time and I know what’s going on and I have serious doubts this ever gets done.”

Moore said that of all the correspondence he has received at his office about Kinnan-Mansfield from his Pasco constituents, 70-80 percent of it is against a connection.

He added, however, that the proposed link between Meadow Pointe Blvd. and a planned road in K-Bar Ranch may prove to be a better option. He said it seemed to be favored by the majority of the (Pasco) people he talked to at the meeting.

Moore said he expects the study, for which Pasco is paying engineering firm AECOM $112,000 to conduct, should take about 6-7 months. The study’s findings will be presented at another public meeting.

“I think the important thing is we are now looking at all possible connections,” Moore said. “Hopefully, we can figure this all out.”

Wharton Valedictorian Jimmy Cannon Headed To Vanderbilt University

The last time Wharton High senior Jimmy Cannon says he took a non-academic elective at high school, it was orchestra his sophomore year. Since then, instead of taking music, weightlifting or art — like many of his peers — Jimmy has filled his schedule the last two years with electives that push him to reach his highest potential, such as physics and math. He even took college algebra after school two days a week. That, and a bioscience class, were the only classes he took that were not Advanced Placement (AP) during his senior year.

He says he wasn’t aiming for valedictorian — he just wanted to push himself to his own personal best — but that’s where he landed.

“I began the year in second place but thought I would probably fall behind,” Jimmy says. “I was hoping to hang on to second place, but what I really wanted was to be near the top of my class to get into a top-tier school.”

He succeeded at that, too.

Jimmy applied for early decision at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. He was accepted and has been provided with what his mom, Marie Cannon Burnard, calls a “generous” financial aid package that includes a work study program.

Wharton High senior Jimmy Cannon on his first day of school at Hunter’s Green Elementary.

Jimmy says, “We looked at a lot of schools and weighed the pros and cons but Vanderbilt seemed like the best fit overall.” He wants to study neuroscience and eventually go to medical school to become a psychiatrist. “Vanderbilt will be good for the neuroscience major,” he says. “I like the city of Nashville, and the community. It seems like a group of smart kids, but everyone seems friendly and nice.”

Jimmy says Vanderbilt recently hosted a “meet and greet” for students in the Tampa area who will attend this fall. Jimmy met several new friends and decided to be roommates in an on-campus dorm room with another student he met at the event.

While Jimmy worked hard to earn his weighted GPA of 6.93, he also worked hard outside of school, too. He has a job as a busboy at Liang’s Bistro on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. and also works for his mom’s tutoring business. He doesn’t like to brag about himself, but his mom says he’s an avid volunteer who also gives of his time every weekend at Florida Hospital Tampa and with the New Tampa Young Life Capernaum program, which is based in Tampa Palms and provides activities for people ages 14-20 with special needs.

Moving out of state will be a big change for a guy who has lived in the same house in Hunter’s Green since he was two years old. “He’s a lifer,” laughs his mom, who used to teach kindergarten at Hunter’s Green Elementary (HGE). Jimmy attended HGE, then Benito Middle School before spending all four high school years at Wharton.

“I’m going to miss my friends I’m leaving behind,” he says, “and a lot of the teachers, especially the teachers who have become like friends.” He means teachers such as Christopher Hart, who Jimmy says makes AP Physics 2 his favorite class. “He’s a funny guy, and I just really enjoy him and his class.”

Marie says Jimmy — and his older sister Regina, too, who is now a junior studying nursing at the University of Tampa — have had great opportunities at their neighborhood schools.

“There are so many really wonderful teachers at Wharton,” she says. “Also, the students have the ability to get these courses. At some private schools, they cap how many AP classes you can take, but the sky is the limit at Wharton, and the guidance department is just fantastic.”

Ultimately, though, it’s something inside Jimmy that has propelled him to take advantage of the opportunities afforded to him.

“It’s an inner drive he has,” Marie says. “He always took the hardest classes he could, rather than playing it safe. Then, he balances all that hard work. Being a teacher, I want to help him, but he’ll go in his room and close the door and study for four hours, then come out when he’s done.”

“It’s been a struggle to juggle all of the APs,” Jimmy admits, “But, I did it.”

Just like his school work, Jimmy wrote his valedictorian speech behind that closed bedroom door. “I recounted my experiences and, moving on from that, I hope to inspire my classmates to understand their purpose and help others find their purpose, as well.”

When Jimmy gets the chance to give that speech in front of his peers and their families at graduation on Monday, May 22, at the Florida State Fairgrounds, his mom might just be the proudest parent in the room.

“Jimmy really overcame a lot,” Marie says. “For many years, I was a single mom and he was the little man of the family. I just thank God he’s a good kid and has a good heart.”

The Villages at Hunter’s Lake Takes Another Step Forward

The project, approved 6-0 by the Council, will include 241 multi-family units, the long-awaited New Tampa Cultural Center and a strip shopping center.

The Village at Hunter’s Lake project, which is seeking to have the property located directly across the street from the main entrance to Hunter’s Green on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. rezoned from community commercial (CC) to mixed use (PD), passed its first hearing before the Tampa City Council.

The City Council approved a number of waiver requests by the developers, including the most important one — adding both a second and third access point from BBD into the development.

The second reading is scheduled for Thursday, June 1, 9:30 a.m., at the Old City Hall on Kennedy Blvd. in downtown Tampa.

If the project is approved, that will pave the way for developers Harrison Bennett Properties and Regency Centers to begin work.

The developers requested the rezoning change for multi-use on the 14 acres of developable land on the 80-acre parcel to accommodate a 30,000-sq.-ft. Cultural Center; a four-story, 241-unit multi-family project called The Haven at Hunter’s Lake; a green grocer; a retail shopping strip center; a restaurant (with a drive-in window) and a community park with a dog park.

At the May 11 meeting before the City Council, the Hunter’s Lake developers requested a waiver to reduce the number of loading zones and parking spots and some slight wetlands reduction, which didn’t spark any debate.

City of Tampa senior planning engineer Melanie Calloway, however, did object to the request for additional access points.

City Council member and Hunter’s Green resident Luis Viera voted to pass the Village at Hunter’s Lake project onto a second reading.

The main entrance into the Village at Hunter’s Lake will be directly across BBD from Hunter’s Green Dr. However, developers want additional access points south of the proposed main entrance (where there is currently a maintenance road) and to the north at Hunter’s Lake Dr., which already leads to Suntrust Bank and LifePoint Church on the east side of BBD.

Calloway pointed out that for the last 20 years, the City of Tampa has been very deliberate and consistent about granting access points on BBD to preserve capacity limits and limit anything detrimental to the roadway.

“We have spent a lot of money (on BBD),’’ she said.

Calloway also noted that other areas in New Tampa along BBD have been developed with fewer access points, like Tampa Palms Area 4 — which has 701 development units, 484 single family units, 400 hotel rooms, 85,000-sq.ft. of commercial and business office — and only three access points along BBD.

“This proposed property has 250 multi-family, 72,000-sq.-ft. of commercial, a cultural center and a dog park,’’ Calloway said. “And they want three access points. We find that being a little bit excessive.”

If an access point at Hunter’s Lake Dr. is approved, the left turn lane at that intersection would be lengthened to reduce traffic backing up. Without that access point, lawyers for the developers argued, drivers who miss the main entrance would have to make a U-turn and traffic would likely back up on northbound BBD. The other concern was that the existing HART bus stop on the southbound side of BBD would create a public safety issue.

“It (the bus stop) would be safer with the access we are proposing,’’ said Steve Henry, a transportation and civil engineer and president of Lincks & Associates. Henry pointed out that Walmart and other smaller locations already have two access points along BBD.

Jeff Cobb, the vice president of the Hunter’s Green Community Association, voiced support for the project, calling it a “Hyde Park-esque effort that will serve, support and enhance New Tampa.”

But, with 5,000 residents and 1,000 visitors a day (according to Cobb), he voiced concern that without a second access point, and the likelihood of traffic backing up at the only left turn into the project, would create problems.

Patrons, he said, would make the decision to turn right at the light at Hunter’s Green, and once inside, make a U-turn to enter the Village at Hunter’s Lake from Hunter’s Green.

“It’s a safety issue,’’ he said. “We think it’s critical you support this second left turn.”

Despite the city’s concerns about additional access points, the City Council ultimately voted 6-0 to approve them (and the rest of the project) and send it to a final reading and public hearing next month.

According to the New Tampa Commercial Overlay District Development Standards, a proposed new access point to BBD, “shall constitute a substantial change to the approved zoning site plan, as well as an amendment to the DRI, where applicable, both of which shall require approval by City Council.”

District 2 Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist, a Hunter’s Green resident,  has long championed the project, the jewel of which is the Cultural Center that will be home to the New Tampa Players (NTP), a local theatre troupe. In December, he told NTP that he hoped the Cultural Center could be open by 2019, and was working hard to secure funding.

NTP has been lobbying the county and city of Tampa governments for a Cultural Center since 2000.

The Harrison Bennett Properties proposal was initially approved by the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners by a 7-0 vote in December 2014.

“This has taken a lot of effort over three years,’’ said David Freeman, the president of Harrison Bennett Properties, which also developed The Walk at Highwoods Preserve.

Freeman sees this Village at Hunter’s Lake project as New Tampa’s downtown.

“We’ve got these communities, like Hunter’s Green and Tampa Palms, which individually are great master-planned communities but don’t really work together as a whole. We see this project really as the linchpin to bring everything together.”

U.S. Women’s Hockey Team To Call Wesley Chapel Home

After a week of practicing and living in Wesley Chapel, the U.S. Women’s National hockey team has decided to move in.

USA Hockey announced on May 5 that the team will call the new Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) its home beginning in September, and leading right up to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

The 2017-18 U.S. Women’s National Team will move its headquarters to Wesley Chapel as it prepares to win gold at the upcoming Winter Games Feb. 9-25.

“This is a big deal for us,’’ says Gordie Zimmermann, FHCI’s general manager. “This is giving us international exposure, and it’s a great thing for our community.”

Zimmermann says Tampa Bay Lightning chairman and governor Jeff Vinik was one of many to congratulate him on winning the bidding rights to be the home for the woman’s team.

“He called to say this was a great thing for us, them being here,’’ Zimmermann says.

Jay Feaster, the former general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning and currently its executive director for community hockey development, says the upcoming U.S. team camp will be great for the area and even better for the growth of women’s hockey in Florida.

There is currently only one elite team for girls in the Tampa Bay area, which is based out of Lakeland.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for us in terms of trying to grow the women’s game at the youth level,’’ Feaster says. “The challenge is making young people aware of the game, and letting girls know that they can, in fact, play.”

Feaster said the Lightning will have a presence during U.S. training. The organization already has invested $6 million to grow the game through its “Build The Thunder” program, which visits hundreds of schools in the area and teaches students street hockey in order to introduce them to the game.

Now, Feaster says, that program will be able to incorporate successful, Olympic- and World Championship-winning women into the program to generate more interest among girls.

Feaster notes that the Lightning has been working on creating girls hockey leagues for aspiring players, and is hopeful of fielding an elite team to compete around the state later this summer.

“Our goal is to get it where you don’t have local, talented kids that feel like to get to a Division I scholarship or make it to the next level, they have to leave the state,’’ Feaster says. “To have this spotlight on us, it’s just a great opportunity for our female players.”

Feaster and Zimmermann both credit the efforts of Brett Strot in getting Team USA to make Wesley Chapel its home.

Strot is a longtime assistant coach with a number of the women’s national teams, and also is the head coach of the USPHL Tampa Bay Junior (Elite and Empire) hockey clubs that play out of FHCI.

Zimmermann says that a few other cities bid to host the women’s national team, but the combination of the weather, Saddlebrook Resort (where the players will stay) and FHCI’s multiple rinks and training facilities was too good for USA Hockey to pass up.

“It was just a really good fit,’’ Zimmermann says.

The announcement that the team would be based in Wesley Chapel came on the same day USA Hockey announced the 23 players named to the U.S. Women’s National  team in a ceremony at Amalie Arena, the downtown Tampa home of the Lightning, that was broadcast live on the NHL Network.

The selections came at the conclusion of a weeklong U.S. Women’s National Team Selection Camp that took place May 1-5 at FHCI, featuring 42 invited players and including a scrimmage that was open to the public.

Of the 23 players selected, 21 were on the team that recently defeated Canada to win the gold medal at the International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championships.

Also, 12 members of the new national team also were on the 2014 U.S. Women’s Olympic team that won the silver medal, after losing to Canada 3-2 in overtime (the first time the gold medal was decided in OT in women’s Olympic hockey). Eleven states are represented on the new roster, led by Minnesota (6), Massachusetts (4) and Wisconsin (3).

There are no Florida players on the team this year, but Zimmermann and Feaster both say they hope that someday, that will change.

“This is truly a team of elite athletes and great role models,” Feaster says. “Best of all, they win, too. There are two programs that are the preeminent women’s teams in the world, and that’s the U.S. and Canada (which has won the last four gold medals). Chances are, you’ll see them playing each other next year for the gold medal, too.”

Look for more stories about the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team in future issues of this publication and on WCNT-tv.