Alumni

Where are our graduates?

Alumni Comments

From Matt Fischer, Class of 2007 Valedictorian, currently attending UNC-Chapel Hill:
Everybody must have a reason to live. In the puzzle of life, there are many pieces that give us reasons to live: family, friends, religion, health, love, peace, freedom, and many more. One important piece to that puzzle is education. All of us here today chose to educate ourselves, and with that comes not just knowledge or a diploma on the wall, but ambition. There's a certain drive in all humans to learn, a voice that asks, "Why?" By choosing to follow that voice we have presented ourselves with new, unanswered questions about the world around us.

Following the path of education also opens new paths for each of our futures. By making this one choice of finishing high school, we in turn have more choice in our lives. There may have been hardships and difficulties along the way, but without the education piece, there are many other pieces that we could never have the chance to put into our puzzles. In the end, none of our lives will turn out the same, but each of our lives will be shaped partly by the milestone of finishing high school. In many ways, the achievement that we're celebrating today is the gateway to our futures.

For education, I'm glad that I came to Hawbridge School. Hawbridge didn't just teach me science, English, and other school subjects, but also more about myself and life. For that reason, I would first of all like to thank all of my teachers and all of the other teachers at this school who taught me all of these things throughout the year. I would also like to thank Keith, Dr. Huth, all of the school administrators, the school staff, and all of the volunteers who make even having this school a possibility. Finally, I would like to thank all of my classmates, my parents, and anybody else that helped me along the way or impacted my life in some way.

A final word to my classmates: Congratulations! I wish you all the best in life. Thank you.

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From Alicia Link, 2004 Valedictorian, currently attending UNC-Asheville:
I am honored to have the chance to speak here today on behalf of the graduating senior class but what I have come to realize is that what matters is not what goes on today, but what we have gone through to get to today and what we will do with our lives in the future.

There is a quote by Emerson, which I stumbled across while I was taking English II, that says, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that the imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; the power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."

I find these words to be inspiring and comforting as I face my future and we come to the part of high school known as graduation, soon to be using that word in the past tense when speaking about ourselves. Today is the day that marks the end of the work that we have put into high school, and hopefully we will walk away with knowledge and experience to propel us forward into the futures we face with confidence and a strong will.

For me graduation is a relief that high school is over, a slight regret that maybe I didn't go about things quite as I should have, a pang of nostalgia. What the rest of us feel today could be apathy, or overwhelming emotion of some sort. I won't try to pretend to know how we all feel because everyone at Hawbridge has had a different high school experience, and many of us came here from other high schools that did not meet our needs. I am one of the few who are graduating today who have been at Hawbridge for four years. Because of this I have seen how the school has changed dramatically in the past four years and how the students who come and go change as well. But one thing has remained the same within the school, the individuality of the students, and the way in which the teachers support their individuality. From the beginning of my ninth grade year I had the opportunity to learn through projects of my own design and to work closely with the teacher to create a method of learning that suited my learning style. I benefited greatly from this, and I am sure that many other seniors here today have appreciated the support of individuality this school offers. It is important that everyone holds on to these values and I hope that teachers who will be returning to school next year will do their best to retain this aspect of Hawbridge, and that the seniors will take this individuality and do something with it that they deem worthwhile when they step out into the waiting world.

When people ask me, as they often have, if I like my high school, I always tell them that the student experience at a high school is only as good as the school's teachers, and for that reason, yes, I do, because I have had some very good teachers at Hawbridge. There are many teachers here who put a lot of hard work into what they do.They have all been supportive and insightful teachers throughout my years here.

And as I conclude, I would like to say only this: live with determination. Do what you love, because your spirit will die if you do not.

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