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Students ready to go everywhere, do everything
189 graduate from Foothill Technology
Eric Parsons / Star staff Foothill Technology High School graduate Ryan Snider, right, reacts as he gets ready to enter the Ventura College gym for commencement. With him are Bryan Smith, left, and Joshua Smith, who are not related.
Fast facts
School: Foothill Technology High School.
School district: Ventura Unified.
Spring enrollment: 900.
Graduating class: 189.
Valedictorian: Shane Ferro.
Salutatorians: Catherine Gilbert, Jyopreet Jagpal, Robert Marshall, Rachel Patterson.
Principal: Joe Bova.
Past year's highlights: Recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School; about 60 percent of graduates are headed to four-year universities.
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The 189 young men and women who graduated Thursday from Foothill Technology High School in Ventura are going everywhere to do everything.
"The Merchant Marine Academy," offered Lindsay Watkins, who wants to become a Navy pilot and, over her academy career, will spend an entire year at sea. She pointed some of the credit for the graduates' ambitions to a high school known for achievement, technology, communications and bioscience.
"There's so much passion in this school," she said of a place where 98 percent of the graduates will dive into higher education, more than 60 percent of them at four-year schools. "Everyone wants to learn here."
On Thursday, everyone wanted to celebrate at a ceremony that brought about 1,500 people to the gymnasium at Ventura College. The grads wore black gowns, maroon sashes and colored cords befitting their accomplishments.
Parents and family members had their own accessories: Cameras with zoom lenses and purple leis to hand out to graduates.
A few went outside the rules, bringing signs that were set aside in a stack near a door. "Nick, you rock dude," said one.
Linda Yuncker sat in the front row a few minutes before her daughter, Lauren, and the other grads entered and the scoreboard flashed welcoming messages. She beamed and spoke of her pride. And oh, yes, she said, tears will be coming.
"Because I love her," she said. "She's a best friend to me."
When Bob Hersh of Agoura saw his grandson walking into the auditorium, he jumped to his feet and hollered out the grad's name. He wanted to do more.
"I was going to run up there and give him a kiss, but he would have been embarrassed," Hersh said with a grin.
Perhaps the most repeated phrase during the ceremony came from Principal Joe Bova. He introduced group after group of students for a litany of achievements: in academics, as mentors and for the 25,000 hours of community service clocked by the graduating class.
"Please stand and be recognized," he said.
From the podium, students offered advice. Always drink Ovaltine, said Stephannie McHale. Never run with scissors. And above all else, never forget to question.
Like most graduations, it was a day of goals that stretched the imagination. Spencer Burke, who is headed to Harvard, pointed out that maybe those dreams are what the world really needs.
"What it needs is optimism," he said to his fellow grads. "And we now carry a surplus."
Posted by shaver_one on June 15, 2007 at 11:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
And Foothill Tech was supposed to be a high school for students not going to a four-year university, but for those who were going to enter the world with a trade skill. That was the reason this school was created. It has since become a magnet school for the priviledged.
Posted by sl_skook on June 16, 2007 at 7:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Foothill Technology is nothing more and nothing less than a place for students who possess the desire to learn. Students from all economic backgrounds attend the school- and the goal is not to establish an education based upon socio-economic class, but rather to encourage a love of knowledge in young adults.
-Stephannie M. (Former Student)
P.S.- I believe the word you attempted to spell was "Privileged"- not "Priviledged."
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