Hopewell Valley graduates are packing their bags
The 299 members of the Hopewell Valley Central High School Class of 2013 are heading off to more than 110 institutions of higher learning this month, with almost all graduates pursuing college, professional training or military service.
”Hopewell Valley graduates are packing their bags for universities such as Cornell, Georgetown and McGill, and colleges such as Williams College, Dartmouth and William and Mary,” according to Alicia Brooks Waltman, district communications specialist.
.Talking earlier this summer with five graduates pursuing a wide range of paths, all expressed sadness at leaving Hopewell Valley, but excitement about setting out on new adventures.
”Leaving is bittersweet, having grown up here, but I’m excited,” said Natalie Kawalec, of Pennington, who will attend Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where she plans to study biology on a pre-med track. She hopes one day to be a neonatologist.
”I’m looking forward to getting out of the Hopewell ‘bubble’ and seeing more of the world.”
”I’m excited to be done with school, but not to be done with Hopewell,” said Sean Richards, of Hopewell Township, who has been appointed to the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, Rhode Island. He will spend a year there preparing academically for admission to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
”I’ve always wanted to serve,” he said. Last summer, after taking part in a week-long program simulating Naval Academy life, “I decided I liked it,” said Mr. Richards, who plans to compete in track and field there.
Jennifer Didun, of Pennington, a field hockey, basketball and track and field standout at Hopewell Valley, will attend Rutgers, where she was recruited to row crew and plans to study psychology. “It’s a little scary,” said Ms. Didun of the prospect of college life. “It’s just something new, being completely on our own and learning how to live.”
Pfeni Flicker, of Titusville, will go to Monmouth University in Red Bank, where she will study psychology. “I’ve been so eager to get out of high school,” she noted, as school was ending in June. “But now that that it’s here, I don’t want to leave.”
Tristan Wheatley is enrolling at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to study diesel mechanics, something he has been practicing with his grandfathers for many years.
”I worked in the shop for many years with them, and went to a great Mercer County Community College program here,” noted the Titusville native.
Hopewell graduates are bound for other institutions that include universities such as Ithaca, Lehigh, Villanova, and Boston, and state universities, such as Rutgers, Delaware, Penn State, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Vermont and North Carolina.
— Ruth Luse