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First Freshman Class Graduates in Nipomo: 'We Have Planted Ourselves By Our Bootstraps and Planted Our Feet Firmly on the Ground.' -- Kathryn Boeck, Student Speaker

Posted on: Saturday, 10 June 2006, 18:00 CDT

By Stephen Curran, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Jun. 10--Brief recorded messages greeted the hundreds of parents, friends and well- wishers as they casually lined the stadium at Nipomo High School on Friday.

Some of the school's 257 graduating seniors thanked God. Many thanked teachers for, in at least two cases, helping them pass that final English class.

Nearly all thanked their families.

This year's graduates marked the first full class to begin as freshman and walk in graduation robes -- which were just big enough to conceal air horns and streamers -- since the school opened in August 2002. It was the second class of seniors to graduate.

That meant, for the first time, the school had alumni in the stands watching as those who were once underclassmen walked, strutted or backflipped their way from the dais.

"We have planted ourselves by our bootstraps and planted our feet firmly on the ground," said Kathryn Boeck, the student chosen by her peers to address the class.

In its short life, Boeck said, Nipomo High School has grown from a new school that once welcomed spectators to a stadium without bleachers to one with a growing academic, cultural and athletic tradition that this year includes 70 students who will attend universities including USC, UCLA and Harvard in the fall.

Now, said senior class President Keeley Rowe, "it is on all of our shoulders to make something of our lives."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)

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