May 19, 2005 – All eight members of the St. John School on Gifft Hill's 2005 graduating class received some sort of financial aid for their upcoming college career, co-administrator Scott Crawford said Wednesday.
He said that in most cases the colleges are awarding the St. John School students for being well-rounded.
"This was a class that had a lot of extra-curricular activities and they all had jobs," he said. Crawford said colleges also look for international students, like those from the Virgin Islands, to round out their class mix.
One student, Alex Riviere, got a full four-year scholarship worth $110,000.
Crawford said he received the scholarship because he was strong in the academic and leadership fields and had done lots of community service.
He said the package was worth $110,000. Riviere will attend Maryville College in Tennessee to study public relations and business.
Other graduates include Sean Costanzo, who will attend the University of New Orleans to study naval architecture, and his twin brother, Ryan, who will study civil engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla.
Ryan Costanzo will be joined at FIT by fellow graduate, Douglas Haveman, who will study finance.
Jamaica Hamilton plans to study journalism at Emerson College in Boston. Candace Hunnicut will attend the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to study business administration. Erika Nye plans to study Spanish and International Studies at Randolph Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, Va. Tom Kaestner is going to Bond University in Australia.
"He's a surfer and wanted to go somewhere that had good surf," Crawford said.
Crawford said the aid is still coming in and the numbers go up each week.
The students will graduate June 3 in a ceremony at Annaberg Plantation. Crawford said retired educator Guy Benjamin will be the featured speaker, with part-time resident Rich Glass offering introductory remarks.
This is the first graduating class from the St. John School. However, a class graduated last year from the Coral Bay School. The Coral Bay School and Pine Peace School combined last summer to form the St. John School.
The school has about 185 students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12.
In other St. John School news, Crawford said that he expects the school's new building on Gifft Hill to be finished by the time school starts in September.
He said the first part of the slab to support the prefabricated steel building has been poured, with the second concrete pour expected in the next 10 days.
While Crawford initially expected the building to be done by Easter, the project experienced numerous delays.
"There's a concrete shortage. They're working as fast as they can," he said.
Crawford also said that a 20-foot container filled with boxes of rubberized mulch that was thought stolen in March turned up last week. He said Tropical Shipping mistakenly sent the trailer to the Enighed Pond Commercial Port project.
"It was a mix up," he said.
The rubberized mulch will be used at the school's early learning center playground.
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