Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9506020070
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ADRIANNE BEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
But by senior year, most students have found their niche in the high school ecosystem, a place where they feel they belong. There's the friend you made in freshman year science class, the boyfriend who appeared sophomore year, the English teacher who encouraged you to follow your dream and be a writer.
Imagine as senior year, prom and graduation approach, your parents drop this one on you: "Guess what? We're moving."
Meet Hunter Bowen. Clad in a blue Thrasher T-shirt, he sits with his blond hair tied back in a ponytail. He's called "smooth and cool" by his guidance counselor, and he looks slightly embarrassed when he learns this. He manages half a smile.
Bowen and two classmates, Aimee Carpenter and Kelly Carter, have something in common beside the fact that they are graduating today. All three graduates moved to the Radford area and transferred into Radford High School during their senior year.
Well, Bowen hasn't moved quite yet. His parents, who had planned to move to Radford during the school year, started driving their sons to Radford from Athens, W.Va., last August so the two would not have to transfer mid-semester.
Bowen is still making that hour-and-15-minute drive to Radford, where his mother works. But he doesn't mind.
"People are more open here and have their priorities straight," Bowen says of Radford High. "At my old school, one of my teachers just gave up on the class and stopped teaching."
Bowen will be making a real move soon, to North Carolina, where he will attend Guilford College.
A guitar player and mountain bike rider, he's not sure what he will study in college. "Anything that's fun. I'll try to do it," he says in his "cool and smooth" way.
Aimee Carpenter has already made a big move - away from her home in Williamsburg where she went to school with her friends.
Halfway through the school year, Carpenter moved in with her sister who attends Radford University when her parents retired and moved to Portsmouth. "My mom's not here now," Carpenter says. "I have to do everything for myself." She smiles easily as she pushes back her long curly hair and reveals triple-pierced ears.
Carpenter, who will attend the Savannah College of Art and Design in the fall, has been getting a jump start on college life living in the university community as a high school student. "My sister and her roommates come in at all hours and sometimes noise outside keeps me up," Carpenter says. "My life's really been a roller coaster this year."
A positive attitude seems to be the key to making this senior year adjustment. Aimee admits that she found many of her peers closed to outsiders, but is quick to mention the people who made her feel welcome. "For a while I felt like I didn't belong and I did miss out on things like the prom because I didn't really know anybody," Carpenter says.
Her dream is to become an animator at Disney.
The biggest geographic move was made by Kelly Carter, who came to Radford from Orlando, Fla. "I think it was a difficult adjustment for her," says Carolyn Canada, her guidance counselor. "There were lots of long distance calls."
Carter admits to racking up a $132 phone bill her first month in Radford. Though a military brat and seasoned traveler, she found herself daunted by Radford's size. "It was hard for me to make friends here in such a small town," Carter says. "Everyone grew up together, and I think that outsiders are kind of a disturbance to that."
Carter moved into Staff Village at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant at the beginning of her senior year when her father began working at the arsenal. She will attend Florida State University on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. "I will miss the mountains, though" Carter admits. "I've never lived in an area like this, where you can see for miles."
RADFORD HIGH SCHOOL
CLASS OF '95
Number of graduates: 89
College bound: 75
Work bound: 10
Military bound: 1
Trade School bound: 1
Valedictorian: Brian Michael
Boggess
Salutatorian: Amy Chung
by CNB