Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL – On a scale of one to 10, Carrboro High School’s graduating class was an 11 on Saturday. Not only did the Class of 2011 have the most service hours of any other class, but it was the first class to finish four years at Carrboro High School, which opened in 2007.
Rather than the usual sea of Carolina blue, the Dean E. Smith Center was filled with proud parents and anticipating graduates. UNC basketball jerseys still hung from the ceiling, but the graduates below were clad in purple, black and white, Carrboro’s colors.
The graduates were a group of “young people with sound character,†said Superintendent Neil Pedersen, the longest serving superintendent of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. Pedersen noted that he will be retiring this year, leaving as the selected honorary member of the Carrboro High Class of 2011.
More than 800 Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students graduated in the Smith Center on Saturday, 197 of which were from Carrboro High.
Carrboro High Student Body President Neel Patel introduced a series of speakers offering words of advice at the Saturday afternoon ceremony, including a few of his fellow classmates.
“We will bring a bit of Carrboro with us wherever we go,†said Jordan Thomas, one of the seven valedictorians who spoke at the commencement.
Hana Haidar, the faculty’s speaker choice at the ceremony, read her poem titled “Forever Come,†which urged students to embrace change and to venture into the future. “Change changes its mind,†she said.
Principal Kelly Batten gave the students words of encouragement and praise. He became nostalgic, recalling the students as young freshmen “wearing a backpack larger than themselves and full of curiosity,†he said. “And now you sit before us as confident leaders.â€
Batten announced that a scholarship had been presented in honor of the Class of 2011 being the first class to complete four full years at the high school.
Nassar Omar, the principal’s choice to speak during the ceremony, reminded the students to challenge themselves and “continue to go out with a bang†as they move on to the next chapter in their lives.
“Worry about the end results when you get there,†Omar said. “You’ll have to throw a little fish back before you can catch a big one.â€
Couldn’t you have had a picture of the Carrboro High School graduation (rather than for Chapel Hill High)???!!! There were a lot of us with cameras there that day who would have gladly supplied an image of the event.