INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — One by one, each of Indian River Charter High School’s 152 seniors stepped forward to receive their diplomas in front of an auditorium full of family, friends and supporters Saturday afternoon.
First in line to receive the long-awaited certificate of graduation was Valedictorian Christopher Moutsos.
Moutsos had a captive audience in his classmates when he delivered the last speech his peers would hear before crossing the line from “high school student” into the college or vocation they will pursue next.
During his humorous but heart-felt speech, Moutsos urged his classmates not to get complacent, to wake up every morning with purpose, and to “take out the trash.”
“Take out the trash,” Moutsos said was a phrase he learned during his education at Indian River Charter from Schools Superintendent Dr. Fran Adams.
The idiom, Moutsos said, refers to clearing one’s mind of things like past mistakes, fear, or failure, and “focusing on the here and now.”
Like Moutsos, two Salutatorians were also recognized for outstanding academic achievement, and each addressed their class one final time.
Co-Salutatorian, Kasia Wake was introduced by Marisol Cruz, one of Wake’s teachers who greatly admired and appreciated her hard work as a student, as “the future Doctor Kasia Wake.”
Wake, a Florida Medallion Scholar, will pursue Biology at New College of Florida in the fall. She spent a large portion of her high school career working with various organizations in Indian River County, performing scientific research on specific portions of the Indian River Lagoon and the marine life within it.
She encouraged her classmates to recognize all the good they have done in 13 years of school, and to remember what they have accomplished as they continue to reach for dreams in their future.
Nathan Duerr claimed his academic spot as the other co-salutatorian, and was introduced by his teacher, Krista Harmon, as someone who’s positive attitude was unceasing. Known for tie-dyed shirts and going barefoot, Harmon said Duerr’s constant smile and kindness for people and animals will be a long-lived legacy at the high school.
Opening his speech, Duerr quoted the recently deceased author and poet, Maya Angelou, “Nothing will work unless you do.”
The rest of Duerr’s speech reminded students that hard work and time management will serve them well as they enter the next phase of their lives.
The youngest of four boys, Duerr’s mother, Kathy Duerr, described her son as completely self-motivated.
“I never had to push him,” she said.
As he continues his education in Biology at the University of Florida in Gainesville, he will have to keep his streak of self-motivation, but his mother is certain he has what it takes.
“He wants to do some type of research to help people and animals co-exist,” Kathy Duerr said. According to his introduction, Duerr is already headed in the right direction to achieve the career he most desires.
As each graduate was called across the stage to claim their diploma, their family members stood in the audience as a teacher read a short snippet of their achievements and their plans for the future.
Though an important rite of passage, a graduation ceremony is incredibly fleeting when comparing it to approximately 18 years of life and 13 years of education leading up to that moment. But as Moutsos, Wake, and Duerr all stated in their own way, there is much more life for each of the former high school students to look forward to.
Finally, Moutsos left his class with the charge to “stand straight, walk proud, and be true to thine own self,” a bit of advice that would serve just about anybody – on graduation day or any other.