By Matt Wiley
Although it happens every spring, it’s a special day for each New Tampa high school student who walks the stage during his or her school’s graduation ceremony at the Florida State Fairgrounds. Congratulations to the Class of 2015 at Freedom and Paul R. Wharton high schools!
On the morning of June 2, 484 Freedom High seniors clad in crimson gowns and mortarboards collected their diplomas and closed a four-year chapter of their lives that they spent at the school’s Commerce Park Blvd. campus.
Salutatorian Calvin Works, who graduated with a 7.17 weighted GPA, addressed his class. Works will be attending Washington University in St. Louis in the fall to study accounting and he said he hopes to go on to attend law school.
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“I’d like to preface my speech by honoring those who couldn’t be here today, whether it be to injury, illness or death,” Works told the crowd. “Personally, I’d like to honor my best friend Beau Schenecker, an individual who would be sitting among you today if not for the tragedy of his death four years ago.”
Works also said that his graduating generation is defined by change, both culturally and technologically.
“If each and every one of you tries to change the world, change will happen,” Works said. “We have the world in front of us, but if we do nothing, our children will not have that same privilege.”
Works was followed by Freedom valedictorian Targol Tarahomi, who graduated with a 7.28 GPA and will be attending the University of Florida in Gainesville in the fall, where she plans to study microbiology and cell science with a focus on neuroscience. Tarahomi said she hopes to one day become a neurosurgeon.
“In this moment, I look out at the crowd and see the future pioneers of technology, science and business,” she said. “I see our future business leaders. I see the product of years of hard work, dedication and passion.”
Tarahomi told her class to take what they learned during their years at Freedom and put it to use in the real world. “Remember this, there might be failures, there might be setbacks,” she said. “If you fall, get back up. Don’t let setbacks deter you from your natural path.”
Freedom principal Sharon Morris also addressed the Class of 2015 before handing out diplomas.
“Four years ago, these students were starting high school as freshmen and, boy, did they leave their mark on Freedom,” Morris said. “These graduates are attending more than 35 (different) colleges and universities next year.”
Among those colleges, Morris said, are Princeton, Duke, Wake Forest, Tulane, The Citadel, University of California at Berkeley and every state university in Florida. She explained that 194 of the students in gowns were graduating with honors and that Freedom’s Class of 2015 earned more than $15 million in scholarships.
“I wish each and every one of you the happiness of a productive life, the respect of your fellow human beings and the love of your family and loved ones,” Morris said before closing with, “Now, let’s distribute some diplomas!”
Wharton Walks As Well!
The Friday before (on May 29), 533 seniors from Wharton High (located on Bruce B. Downs [BBD] Blvd. in New Tampa, also walked the stage at the Fairgrounds.
“Four years ago, I had the pleasure of welcoming this group of students as ninth graders to Wharton High School,” said Wharton principal Bradley Woods. “During their time at Wharton, they not only had the opportunity to receive a quality education that has prepared them for life after high school, but also the opportunity to find themselves, to learn what they enjoy and what they don’t, to make mistakes and learn from them, to learn to push themselves and to find happiness, to take pride in everything they do, to do their best, to show initiative, to strive for the excellence that has become expected from our students over the past 17 years, to be Wharton Wildcats.”
Woods explained that this year’s graduating class had taken more than 1,100 Advanced Placement (AP) tests during their four years at Wharton and that 221 students graduated with GPAs higher than the standard “perfect” unweighted GPA of 4.0, with 38 students earning higher than a 6.0 weighted GPA. He added that the class also earned more than $10 million in scholarship offers and that students will be attending schools such as Cornell University, New York University and Rutgers University, as well as USF, the University of Tampa and Pasco-Hernando State College. Students also racked up more than 3,000 volunteer hours with numerous organizations across Tampa Bay, Woods said.
“This group of students will leave here, today, as graduates of Wharton High School,” Woods said. “They will return in the years to come as scholars, scientists, entrepreneurs, educators, doctors and lawyers. They will return as leaders. They are the Class of 2015.”
Salutatorian Meghana Tatineni, who graduated with a 6.71 GPA and will be attending the University of Florida in the fall, told her classmates to forget all of the usual clichés and to forge their own paths in the world.
Valedictorian Xella Doi, who graduated with a 6.76 GPA and who will be attending Cornell (located in Ithaca, NY), told her class that she would also be scared when she had to walk the stage a few moments later.
“Not only the fear of tripping and falling in front of everybody, but the fear of what is to come,” Doi said. “In a few months, I will relocate to college 1,247 miles away from the people I know and love — and from my mom’s laundry services.”
She said that, although the future is scary, it’s also exciting.
“I can do or be anything I want,” Doi said, adding that she’s been preparing in the best way possible — with the people around her at Wharton.
“As I walk across the stage today, there’s a good deal of optimism mixed in with the fear,” she said.
From everyone at the New Tampa Neighborhood News, congratulations and best of luck to New Tampa’s Class of 2015 and to all of the local students who graduated from schools outside of the New Tampa area!
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