Alvarenga and Levandoski were among 590 students that colored Memorial Stadium in red caps and gowns at the school’s graduation ceremony. Students hugged and cheered in celebration of getting one step closer to their future careers.
“I’m pumped to the max,” Jonathan Bohn, 18, said. Bohn plans to work at the Boys and Girls Club in Burbank this summer and eventually enroll at the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena.
Bohn and the entire graduating class wore green ribbons pinned to the top of their gowns in honor of Tania Hurd, the school’s culinary art teacher. Hurd was killed in a helicopter crash on Catalina Island during Memorial Day weekend. The school band and choir also performed Natalie King Cole’s “Unforgettable,” a song very special to Hurd, Principal Emilio Urioste said.
“She was such an inspiration to me,” Bohn said. “She will be greatly missed.”
Urioste said this year’s class was full of students who are very dedicated to the community.
“We have a requirement at the school that students perform 10 hours of outside volunteer work to graduate,” he said. “This year, we had several students that performed 100 hours or more.”
The school’s bleachers were filled with teary parents who watched as their children prepared to move on to college or the work place.
“I am sad because she is grown up and had become a young lady. She isn’t my baby girl anymore,” said parent Kelle Slater. Her daughter Karissa Lagmay, who participated in the Junior Olympics last year with the San Gabriel Volleyball League, plans to attend Cal Poly, where she will continue her sports career.
“I substituted for this graduating class when they were freshmen,” French and Spanish teacher James DeKay said. DeKay moved from New York to take a full-time job at the school. “They were so nice that it inspired me to take a job here.”
Robert Bauer, the school’s salutatorian, imparted some wisdom to his classmates as the sun set behind the stadium’s fence.
“Soon we will all be going on separate ways, it is the end of one path and the beginning of another,” he said. “We should remember what we have enjoyed in our high school years each of you has unique talents, and you should use them as your guides for the rest of your life.”
