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SCHOOL JOURNAL

Emeryville Grads Look Forward to Future

David Mills
The Emeryville Connection Staff
June 2007

They’re a small group, preparing to head out into an uncertain world.

But they have persevered the past 12 years. And they are confident and they are ready.

On the evening of June 13th, 37 seniors from Emeryville Secondary will step onto a grassy athletic field and accept their diplomas as their school’s graduating class of 2007.

“Emeryville is a great place,” says Wesley Slade, senior class president, “but I can’t wait to get out there to face new challenges.”

Slade and his three dozen fellow graduates have witnessed the Emeryville school system’s fall and rise during their tenure.

When they entered 7th grade, Emeryville schools were bankrupt and being taken over by a state administrator. When they were in 9th grade, Emeryville voters approved Measure A, injecting desperately needed funds into the district.

During the past four years, Emeryville schools have added more classes, librarians, after-school programs and counselors. Test scores have risen and the students have ridden this wave of success.

“I can say this place is a different color now. It’s seen through a completely different lens,” says Maurice Grayson, student body president.

The graduating seniors are certainly survivors. Four years ago, their freshman class contained 63 students. Some have since dropped out. Others have moved away. The 37 who remain will walk together to the sounds of “Pomp and Circumstance.”

“What I like about these kids is they’ve know each other a long time,” says Emeryville Secondary Principal Antonio Cediel. “They’re a tightly knit group. They do a good job taking care of each other.”

This is Cediel’s first year on the job, so this is his first graduating class at Emeryville. In the future, Cediel says he’d like to get Emeryville students better prepared for the bigger world of college and the job market. However, he says, he thinks the 2007 graduating class will do well.

Slade is headed to San Francisco State, where he will study computer engineering. He’s been interested in electronics every since his mother brought home a computer when he was a young child.

“I don’t know a lot about them yet, but I know it’s what I want to do,” he says.

Grayson will attend U.C. Berkeley in the fall, where he will study computer programming. He says some of his classmates are a bit anxious about heading out into the world. But he believes his “creative and spirited” classmates will prosper once they’re there.

“I’m ready to get going,” Grayson says.

So are the others who will walk with him on June 13th.

David Mills is a writer for The Emeryville Connection. If you have a question or comment, please contact him at ecocnews@gmail.com