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It has been a long time coming. This year’s graduation marked the final day of school for our 12th graders. These same students were my very first class when I first came to Windermere 3 years ago. I served as the 10th grade advisor, and they immediately tested my patience. Now, I have watched them grow up and mature into a respectable graduating class with a bright future ahead… full of potential.
The ceremony was very good. We had my long time friend, Wade Weinburger serve as Master of Ceremonies. The talk afterwards was that Wade stole the show with all his jokes. He did a great job moving the service along and keeping everyone smiling. Even though it was 2 1/2 hours long, it never felt like it.
Along with the normal valedictorian and salutatorian awards, we were privileged to award two of our students will full 4 year scholarships as we has two consecutive 1st place winners of the JA Most Distinguished award. One of the award winners was Kes Higgs, she among all the 12th graders was closest to Emily and I in that she lived on campus for the duration of her education. Although the road was long and strenuous at times, we’ve seen her mature and blossom as she now looks with optimism towards the future. She is a natural leader and we look with expectation for great things from her.
Additionally, WHS has the highest scoring senior on the entire island, with a GPA of 3.97. This young man, Mario Strachan, regularly handed in exams for Physics and Biology that were more thorough than my answer keys! He along with Kes have been awarded a full 4 year scholarship to COB. We are very proud of his accomplishment. The awards received reveal the payoff for years of discipline and keeping the main thing the main thing throughout high school. Sometime to which not every student can attest.
As a staff we worked hard this year to offer the children electives from Emily’s Jewelry making class to Carpentry and Swimming. At graduation we had the opportunity to recognize our students for their achievement with a certificate in their activity of choice.
I will genuinely miss these kids… after all they were my first group that I was tasked with overseeing. I wish them every blessing as they continue on to seek God’s will for their future in serving Him and pursuing excellence.