This year at the Alternative Center for Excellence (ACE) we have many new seniors who will be graduating this January. For them to leave us is truly bittersweet, for they may be leaving us, but leaving high school in the dust is what high school is for in the first place. All kidding aside, our graduates this year include Jeff Carreiro, Surita Epps, Rocky Morreira, Carissa Ahearn, Vanessa Giacomazzo, and Tim Pagan. It may not look like a lot, but to us, these students are not just students, but also family, so the hurt of them leaving is much greater. I had time to interview some of them, and ask them about how they felt about leaving ACE.
ACE has seen many students come and go, but there’s only one Jeff Carreiro, and it’ll be hard seeing him go. “It feels great,” he said about finally graduating. Jeff will miss “all the cool teachers” the most, seeing as how we all are friends with the teachers, almost like they weren’t really old people. When asked about what he’ll do after college, Jeff told me “I plan on going to a culinary arts school.” How did Jeff go about coming to ACE? “My older brother suggested it,” he said, his brother being an alumnus. He found out a lot about himself here at the Alternative Center, but mostly he learned that “I can do anything if I put my mind to it.”
Carissa Ahearn is one of the more lovable students at ACE (as opposed to the many students everyone hates). “I feel relieved,” she said. “it’s a relief to be out early and I’m one more step into the real world,” although “I’m going to miss just the whole environment.” Her fondest memory of ACE was her first canoe trip. Carissa plans on going to work for a little while and then go to school next September. “My mom told me about this school, she used to go here,” she said of learning about ACE. She said that she “learned where I want to go with myself, and what I want to do.” Carissa will truly be missed here at ACE.
Tim Pagan, the hardest working man in the school work business, is another lucky chum I had the pleasure to sit down with. “It feels pretty d*** good,” he joked about graduating. “First coming to ACE,” was like a breath of fresh air to him. He’s really truly going to miss “all the teachers and everybody in the school.” Tim wants to go to school for cartooning after high school. His mother is also an alumnus of ACE, and she suggested he came here to begin with. “I’ve definitely grown up more, I’m more responsible.” Tim told me of how ACE shaped him into who he is today.
ACE loses some people every year, but we also gain more students. No, not students, family. ACE will truly miss all of you seniors, but our doors are always open. I hope you come back in the future to tell us how you’ve been and what you’ve done with your lives. So don’t slack off, or my whole article would have been a lie.
