Bridgeport graduates step out

Class of metformin hcl side effects 2011 takes bows as labor secretary, governor add pomp to circumstances

Waiting in an orange robe, senior Norma Camacho had plenty to be nervous about before Bridgeport High School’s graduation ceremony on June 1.

Camacho made the first welcoming remarks in front of an estimated 1,200 people, including Gov. Chris Gregoire and state Sen. Linda Evans Parlette.

Although Bridgeport didn’t win President Obama — the grand prize of the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge — the White House sent U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the first Latina ever appointed to a U.S. Cabinet position. Camacho and two other seniors were the following act to her keynote.

Ten minutes before it all began, one thought weighed heavy on Camacho’s mind.

“It’s like one of our teachers told us, once we step off that stage there will be some people that we never see again. It’s so true,” she said.

The 200-student school caught the nation’s attention this spring as a poor, rural school whose strong college-bound culture defied all adversity. Every senior in the Class of 2011 plans to move on to post-secondary education. Their video propelled Bridgeport into the final two of the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge.

Despite the dignitaries and media crews, Bridgeport High School sent off its most famous graduating class with the same hugs and tears that will be shared all over the nation in coming weeks.

“Those are my kids,” Principal Tamra Jackson said after the ceremony. “I not only see them all day here but I live with them in this community. I’ve invested myself in them, but they’ve given me part of themselves, too. I’m going to miss them, a lot.”

The 37 graduates and their families spent a few private moments with Solis before the big event. Solis told them Bridgeport feels very much like her hometown in California, where her parents, both immigrants, worked in factories and her high school colors were orange and black.

But unlike Bridgeport, she could count on one hand the number of students in her graduating class who enrolled in college.

Solis said a high school counselor once told her “she wasn’t college material” and should be a secretary.

Solis grew up with seven brothers and sisters. Senior Isabel Jimenez is the youngest of six.

Solis will be the first in her family to go to college. So will Jimenez. She starts classes at Green River Community College in the fall.

Jimenez is the only one of her family to graduate high school as a U.S. citizen. Her older siblings were undocumented, so they didn’t qualify for financial aid.

“It’s been hard with the whole money thing and college,” she said, adding that her mother raised six children alone. “I’m the only one who could go to college. That’s why they expect a lot from me.”

Senior Miranda Garza wiped away her tears after seeing her parents and 3-year-old daughter after the ceremony. She said Solis’ story struck a chord with her.

“It’s been tough for me to get to graduation,” she said. “All of a sudden it hit me that we finally made it.”