Twelve students received their diplomas as Gillingham Charter School’s second graduating class Friday in a commencement ceremony at the Schuylkill County Council for the Arts at the Yuengling Mansion in Pottsville.
“Some of you joined us five years ago when we first opened. Some have spent your entire high school years with us. Some of you joined us this year,” Nicolle M. Hutchinson, Gillingham’s CEO and director of education, said. “It has been our privilege and luck to be in your lives. It has been our honor to play a role in supporting you as you define yourselves.”
Graduating students and their home districts were: Tabitha Housel, Pottsville Area; Valerie Bentz, Pottsville Area; Isaiah Thompson, Saint Clair Area; Pierson Bell, Saint Clair Area; Ashley Teichman, Mahanoy Area; Megan Boemmel, Blue Mountain; Lake Miller, Tamaqua Area; Tavenner Smith, Blue Mountain; Sadie Bowman, Pottsville Area; Ray Whah, Schuylkill Haven Area; Tasha Haller, Pottsville Area; and Alexandra Ruiz, Mahanoy Area.
Hutchinson recalled particularly memorable moments spent with each student over the year and shared a favorite quote from American poet Walt Whitman.
“The question, ‘O me! so sad, recurring — What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here — that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse,” she said. “We understand our job here is to help you write that verse because you are in this powerful play we call life and you have a verse to continue. We have just seen a glimpse of the verse you will write with your life and it has been our pleasure and honor to support you as you write your verse.”
Earlier Friday, the Class of 2016 gave a gift to the school at the end of the year picnic. The students donated a tetherball pole to the school.
Also at the graduation ceremony, the graduates passed on a “legacy book” to members of the junior class. The book — which the juniors can not read until their first day as seniors — contains advice, insights and thoughts from the outgoing students about their last year.
Following introductions from their teachers, each student had the opportunity to speak and present a “gratitude pin” to someone who has played a key role in their lives and education. They presented the pins, which were shaped like keys, to parents and teachers.
Since the charter school does not rank students, they did not name a valedictorian or salutatorian. However, a few students volunteered to give speeches.
Housel, who along with Bentz, Thompson and Bell, has been at the school since it opened in 2011, thanked the school for providing them with a different educational opportunity and pushing them to their full potential.
“Seeing this school grow over the last five years, watching people, students and teachers alike come and go, has been a struggle, but it has made us stronger as a school,” Housel said. “We have been through a lot of trial and error trying to figure out the school thing we are doing in such a different way.”
Housel will attend Millersville University next year.
“It is going to be extremely different, but I feel my time here has prepared me enough,” she said.