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HomeNewsArchives$2M in Scholarships Help Pave Way for CAHS Grads

$2M in Scholarships Help Pave Way for CAHS Grads

June 8, 2008 — In a ceremony marked by close to a dozen speeches, several referencing the history-making Democratic presidential primaries, Charlotte Amalie High School (CAHS) graduated 265 students Sunday night, with scholarship earnings totaling more than $2 million.
One hundred eighty-five students will be attending college or university, 24 are going to technical schools, 19 are off to the military and the balance will be going into the job market, the school's principal Carmen D. Howell told the audience. Fifty-five received diplomas as vocational-technical education graduates, and 128 were recognized as honor students for having achieved a grade point average of 83 or better.
"Together, these students have been awarded more than $2.2 million in scholarships," Howell announced as she opened the school's 78th commencement ceremony, held this year at the Sports and Fitness Center of the University of the Virgin Islands.
"Like Barack Obama, you too must have the audacity of hope for a better tomorrow," Howell said, referencing the Illinois senator's historic place as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party — uncharted political heights for a black person in the United States.
Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen was not among those referencing Obama, whose candidacy she only recently endorsed, but she did call attention to the political process, giving credit to CAHS for a bill about to pass Congress.
Christensen said she was asked by a CAHS student a few years ago why mainlanders knew so little about the territory. That prompted her to sponsor a bill, now on the verge of passing – called a Sense of Congress – which "…will tell the country that it wants all schools to teach students the history of the territory," said Christensen. "It began right here, at the door of Charlotte Amalie High School. What that says about Charlotte Amalie High School is….you're ready to speak truth to power."
Valedictorian Cassandra Benjamin called on her classmates to "expect to make sacrifices" and encouraged them to "go out and make your own history."
Salutatorian Anthony Nibbs expressed pride both in Obama and in his school's recent accreditation through the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and he also looked back with humor on his high school years.
"We laughed together, cried together, and we also prayed together that we would pass the English test that none of us studied for the night before," Nibbs quipped, prompting an affirming laugh from the sea of blue-clad students.
The humor continued as CAHS graduate and now chief of surgery for the Roy L. Schneider Regional Medical Center, Dr. Frank Odlum, took the stage as the keynote speaker. He said that when he was asked to deliver this address, he tried to remember what the keynote speaker said at his CAHS graduation 25 years ago.
"Do you know what I remember? Absolutely nothing!" Odlum confessed, laughing. "And now I have to be the guy that you guys will remember for saying absolutely nothing."
Nevertheless, he encouraged the students to exercise their minds, good habits and a good attitude.
Gov. John deJongh Jr. closed the speeches first with a joke, telling the students that they were going to "walk across this stage and become what I love to call — the taxpayers of the Virgin Islands."
He finished by telling them, "People only care what you know when they know that you care… Reach out to others and show you care."
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