KC grads take different paths
KARNS CITY — Hannah Kijowski ended Wednesday evening with a diploma in her hand earned from Karns City High School.
But for the 18-year-old graduate from East Brady, the walk to receive her diploma and the handshake afterward was more painful than those taken by her 119 graduating classmates.
“I slammed my finger in the car door when we got here. It's throbbing. I'm going to lose that nail,” Hannah said.
“Also, I tore my ACL last week and I'm walking in heels.”
Hannah will have surgery on the injury, suffered during a school powderpuff football game, on Wednesday, then will be free to spend the summer working at Chicora Medical Center as a dietary aid and vacationing at Myrtle Beach, S.C., before attending Butler County Community College's physical therapy assistant program in the fall.
Light rainfall and overcast skies did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of Karns City High School's Class of 2012, each of whom is setting out on a different path to success.
From class President Kaden Young to student speakers Carly Potchak, Emma Grubbs and Christopher Znosko, each graduating senior weighed the promise of a bright future against the feeling that the carefree days of childhood were ending, all to the tune of “Pomp and Circumstance.”
For Charles “C.J.” Ryan, 18, of Bruin, the future starts today.
He'll swap his purple graduation gown with an electric blue shirt, matching DC Shoes and Looney Tunes tie for jeans and boots when he goes to work at Woodside Plumbing in Parker.
C.J. will have no sympathy for college freshmen who struggle to rise for an 8 a.m. class twice a week.
“I start working full-time (today),” he said.
“I get up at 5 a.m. and have to leave by around 6:15 a.m.”
C.J. learned his trade on the job during the past two years, without the benefit of training at Butler County Vocational-Technical School.
However, Jenna Hutchison, 18, of Chicora said she will miss classes at the vo-tech school, which she attended for culinary arts.Jenna said it felt “absolutely wonderful” to graduate.She will attend Indiana (Pa.) University starting in the fall to continue her pursuit of culinary arts in the hopes the profession will take her “all over the world.”Darek Horton, 17, of Chicora also has chosen a profession with the potential — possibly guarantee — of world travel.Darek has signed on for a six-year enlistment in the U.S. Air Force, with plans to work in an IT or other computer-based role.“I'm probably going to make it my career,” he said.“I'm going to miss seeing the friends I see (at school) every day though, and some of the teachers.”But graduation is for parents as much as it is for young adults.Kelli Fitzpatrick of Butler was passing around a football at the graduation ceremony, getting signatures from her son's classmates.The beaming mom was informed when she arrived that her son, Alex Kinkela, 18, of East Brady had received a scholarship, one he still didn't know about.“(School administrators) told me when we got here. I think he has three scholarships now,” Fitzpatrick said.“We're pretty proud of him.”She said the standout discus thrower, bowler and fullback/defensive end plans to continue his football career at St. Francis University while studying biology and pre-med.
