The Vivien Vanterpool Primary School, at Island Harbour, where students have been excelling in recent times in academics and sports, has shown much improvement in terms of the number of its 2019 graduates. That number has moved from 12 in 2018 to 18 this year.
Attired in their attractive dark green graduation gowns, the graduating students marched into the decorated and crowded First Baptist Church at Welches – about a mile from their seacoast school – where the graduation ceremony was held on Tuesday, June 25.
Destined for Campus B of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, at the commencement of the new school year in September, the graduates are: Nivaun Brodie, Kaidon Brooks, Jhakia Dasent, Jaarique Harrigan, Brian Hodge, Jermela Hodge-Rey, Ackinson Norford, Hiresha Proctor, Glenique Richardson, Katalia Otto-Richardson, Deondra Richardson, Andre Samuel, Alan Seepersaud, Jayden Turvides, Kerisha Vanterpool, Cozahnie Webster-Mockett, Eridyn Webster and Ronylah Webster.
Facing new challenges in the next step of their educational journey, they were motivated by a former outstanding student at the Vivien Vanterpool School, Jibri Lewis, who delivered the feature address. Known for his technical and scientific creations which eventually won him a full scholarship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he holds a Master of Science degree and is employed as a Technician at the National Commercial Data Services.
“Never limit yourself to what you can achieve,” he advised the graduating students, drawing from his own accomplishments. “You can achieve anything you need just by putting your mind to it – and putting it to work. Keep moving forward.”
Meanwhile, the Principal, Mrs. Mavis Fleming-Drakes, in her welcome remarks, told the relatives of the students: “Graduation is something that you and your children should be happy about. It is a milestone that your children have passed. It gives us the staff of the Vivien Vanterpool School – myself, my deputy and all of our teachers, including our special teachers – much delight to see how the students have grown; to know how wonderful they were in our hands; to have been able to guide and guard them; and also to have educated them to where they are today. It is a great pleasure for me to hand them over to you so that they can move on to the next step in their lives and education.”
The Valedictorian was Andre Samuel, who excelled in a number of academic areas, and the Salutatorian was Katalin Otto-Richardson – both of whom were commended for their performance.
