NOTE: This page uses cascading style sheets (CSS) to present the content in the best possible manner. If you are reading this message, then you do not have a standards-compliant browser or CSS (or JavaScript) is not enabled in your browser, and the page will not appear as the designer intended. Please visit The Web Standards Project for details and for information about how to upgrade your browser.

Liberty High School graduates 196 amid reflections, high spirits

By Jessica A. Hardy
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Caps begin to fly at the end of the graduation ceremonies for the Liberty Continuation High School Class of 2003 on Thursday at Hutchins Street Square. (Jerry Tyson/News-Sentinel)

Although students spend an average of only a year-and-a-half at Liberty High School, graduation is no less a monumental occasion for them.

"I never thought I'd be here because I was a mess-up," Orman Anthony said only moments after he had crossed the stage at Hutchins Street Square and received his diploma Thursday morning.

"This is like coming back from the dead to be alive again," he added.

During ceremonies held under blue skies and a climbing heat index, 196 students were graduated from Liberty High, Alternative Learning Center and Lodi Adult School -- 17 more than last year's record number.

Wilting heat did not deter family members and friends from attending the celebration of the Class of 2003. A crowd of several hundred adapted to the sun's powerful rays with umbrellas and migration into the shade of a line of on-the-outskirts trees where they settled onto blankets or in a wide assortment of lawn chairs.

And powder blue programs quickly doubled as fans.

But the muggy heat didn't discourage the enthusiasm of the graduates either.

According to Robert Rivas, Liberty's principal for the past six years, the increased number of graduating students is due to more enrolled seniors and the perseverance of the students.

"We are happy these students have been able to experience a high school environment more suitable to their learning styles," Rivas said. "They are successful because they have finished what they started."

The ceremony's focus was mainly on the extraordinary achievement and future plans of the students. Four students speakers -- Brenna Leonardini-Gillam, Karla Fuentes, Yvette Avalos and Amanda Jensen -- shared their experiences with classmates, family members and friends during the ceremonies.

Although Leonardini-Gillam had to step onto a stool to reach to microphone, she eloquently spoke of the tall accomplishment she and her fellow classmates had obtained by completing their degrees.

"Failure was not an option for me as a single teenage mother," Fuentes said.

Fuentes worked, went to school and raised a child while obtaining her high school credits and is graduating a year early as a junior. She plans to pursue a registered nursing degree.

Avalos also spoke of the struggle to balance school, work and the care of her daughter Lucy. She received a Kiwanis Club scholarship and plans to enroll in the culinary arts program at San Joaquin Delta College. Someday she dreams of owning her own restaurant.

Jensen, who Rivas said would have been the class valedictorian if Liberty had such an honor, received a scholarship from the Lodi Rotary Club for her abilities in design and fine arts. The scholarship was presented to her by Lodi Unified School District Superintendent Bill Huyett.

She plans to go to Delta College in the fall and eventually would like to work for the Walt Disney Co.

"I've learned I can get there if I dream it," Jensen said following her graduation.

Anthony, who quietly observed the sentiments of his classmates summed up their efforts and thoughts about his own goals to go to college and focus on culinary, mechanical or fine art.

"You have dedication or you have nothing," he said.

The center in the wheel of the celebration was Rivas. He was the last person the students shook hands with after they got their diplomas. He joked with and hugged many of them, gladly posing for numerous graduation photographs after the ceremony ended.

"This is the best day of the year for us," Rivas said. "And the hardest."

Rivas could barely contain his emotion as he reflected on the energy and hope he and his staff -- "teachers of the heart" -- had invested in their students.

"This group has truly achieved," Rivas said. "They have all earned their diplomas."