VERO BEACH — Under a blazing late-morning sun, and steam rising from the rain the night before that had cancelled the scheduled evening ceremony, more than 500 Vero Beach High School seniors strode across the stage to receive their diplomas Saturday.
The red-and-white umbrellas that Friday night shielded parents and fans from a drenching rainstorm were raised today to ward off the relentless sun. Even the frailest grandparents seemed content to endure the speeches by students, administrators and the school superintendent, in order to see their star students receive their diplomas.
Among the speakers was Ashley Villar, Valedictorian, who declined acceptance to Harvard and Princeton to study astrophysics at M.I.T. In a speech spiked with wit, Villar bypassed her own stunning achievements to praise the less acknowledged accomplishments and challenges — both at school and at home — of each member of her class.
Salutatorian Hannah Keiler, headed for Columbia University, spoke of Vero Beach High’s close-knit community that kept tabs on her and her classmates. She recalled a grand adventure with her classmates at age 13, when they hiked down A-1-A to the 7-Eleven for a Slurpee, while the home phone rang off the hook to her parents with neighbors asking if they knew where their daughter was.
Indeed, as names seemed broadly familiar, and cheers went up beyond the family circle, both Keiler’s and Villar’s observations were borne out. This was an outstanding graduating class, according to assistant principal in charge of curriculum, Anne Bieber.
With 71 AP graduates and 139 honors graduates, there were eight National Merit scholars – higher than any school in the four-county area.
Bieber said 23 students were accepted at the highly selective University of Florida. Other college acceptances including two at Harvard, as well as Princeton, Cornell, New York University, Duke, Georgia Tech, William and Mary, Notre Dame, University of Virginia and Wake Forest.
Six graduated with Associate of Arts degrees from Indian River State College, as a result of the schools’ Dual Enrollment program; they leave Vero Beach High to begin their junior year of college, a savings of time and tuition.
Others graduated with certificates affording them a big leg-up on a career. The school has a special medical arts curriculum for those interested in the medical field – they get “hands-on training,” Bieber said, and coursework includes stints at the hospital as well as nursing homes.
The students also run the highly successful blood drive on campus. Fifty-five graduated with licenses as certified nursing assistants.
Others earned training in auto repair at the school’s shop; dozens more graduated with emphasis in culinary arts, and worked in the school’s own restaurant, that stays solidly booked for public functions. One graduate in culinary arts was accepted at Johnson and Wales, considered one of the top culinary schools in the nation.
Still others graduated with an emphasis in business and accounting, having participated in the school’s on-site bank, a functioning branch of the Royal Bank of Canada.
There is also an entrepreneurial program in which students run a company that prints and sells T-shirts. A construction program has students building sheds, which are sold to the public. The school’s top drafting students entered full sets of floor plans for a house in a competition at Indian River State College.
Bieber said students entering a photography competition at the state level won 20 first-prize awards this year.
“And the math team trophies go from here to eternity,” she added.
Apart from its legendary basketball, football and band programs, Vero Beach High School’s competition cheerleading team came in first in state competition. Its yearbook won a national prize. Boys’ tennis won regional championship. Girls’ lacrosse was number one in the state for the fifth year in a row, and one student, Jenn Leffew, will go on to play at Harvard in the fall.
“People have no idea of the depth of what is here,” said Bieber. “We have a school where every kid has a place to get to feel successful in. That’s the big thing about public education.”
