Schools

Riverview Sharks Turn Off the Cell Phones, Grab Hold of Their Diplomas

Riverview High School seniors become alumni following their June 6 commencement at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall. The world has now grown by another 450 high school graduates.

Where else but at a high school graduation could you find 450 teenagers gathered together with their cell phones turned off, their texting fingers silenced, their social media outlets disengaged?

How prominent all this “electrical stuff” has become in a student’s life is not lost upon Robert Heilmann, the principal of those 450 teens, who on June 6 stood before them and their loved ones gathered at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa for the Riverview High School commencement of the Class of 2011.

“Well, parents, sometimes I have a difficult job as a principal,” Heilmann said. “All of this electrical stuff. We have cell phones. Boy, do we have cell phones! We have iPhones, we have iPads, we have MP3’s, we have Facebook, we have MySpace, we have G-mail and we have text messages. Yadda, yadda, yadda.”

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Then, in what obviously was a previously rehearsed moment, Heilmann added:

“But what we need to say to you . . . "

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And then his students, in one voice, for the last time sitting as one student body, said in loud, clear tones: “Thank you, mom and dad.”

“Now they don’t have to text you, ‘Thank you,’ ” Heilmann said. “And you can put an extra $5 in the card.”

The joviality aside, the seriousness of the day’s ritual came to pass with a celebratory recounting of the class’s achievements, as relayed in tandem by Bridget Coffaro, senior class president, and Angelica Whetstone, student council president.

This year’s graduating class included eight students with weighted grade-point averages 6.0 or better; another 53 students had a weighted GPA of at least 5.0. Collectively, the students raised more than $2.5 million in scholarships.

Overall, the students compiled some 5,000 hours of community service, with 16 students compiling at least 100 hours each.

This year’s Riverview Relay For Life raised some $140,000 for the American Cancer Society. The annual Trick or Treat Street event drew some 5,000 kids to the school for a safe Halloween event presented by area businesses and the Greater Riverview Chamber of Commerce.

Twenty-two seniors were set to begin their internships with the U.S. military.

Of the approximately 450 graduates, 350 were accepted into college, with seven students earning the highest Florida Bright Futures scholarship, with another 128 earning the Florida Medallion scholarship. Four students earned the Gold Seal designation.

Kayleen Boatwright gave the salutatorian speech followed by remarks by Carolyn Harnish, the school’s valedictorian.

With degrees in hand, the newly minted alumni gathered outside the Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairground to receive congratulatory hugs and well-wishes from family and friends.

“I feel free,” said Jordan Hamann, who graduated from Newsome High School on June 2 and was wearing a T-shirt from his place of employment, the Brandon Sports & Aquatic Center. Hamann was back at the Fairgrounds to congratulate his friend, Riverview graduate Andrew Gagnon.

“It’s time to start ‘me’ and not just the family,” added Hamann, who said he planned to follow in the footsteps of  his mother and become a nurse, with studies set for Hillsborough Community College.

Hamann said he’s off to the University of South Florida, with his sights set on a career in broadcast journalism.

“I love sports and I love T.V.,” Hamann said. “Put the two together and that’s what I got.”

Riverview graduates Laurence Cicale and Xavier Jimenez are bound for the University of South Florida.

“I’m just ready to move on to the next chapter of my life,” Cicale said, to “do it big.”

His goal is to major in chemistry and to become a pharmacist.

“I’m studying to be an oncologist,” Jimenez said. “I’d like to help people so I thought that would be a good field to get into.”

As for girlfriends Janel Rodriguez and Sara Casiano, the enormity of the moment had yet to sink in – completely.

“Kind-a, sort-a, a little bit, ‘Oh, my gosh!’ ” is how Rodriguez answered the question, “Has it sunk in yet?”

Added Casiano: “The diploma makes it all that more real.”


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