Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 8, 1995 TAG: 9506090014
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-35 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
To guidance counselor, Nancy Robison, who has known some of them for six years, many of the graduates seem to be more ready than some in previous years to get on with life in the real world.
That's a hard thing to explain, the veteran teacher at Roanoke County's smallest high school admits. This year's Glenvar class is a trifle less flamboyant, more quiet and serious, Robison suggests. They seem less emotional about leaving the social life of high school, and many have well thought out plans for the future, she observed.
This year Glenvar has garnered some enviable awards for seniors who shine academically and in broader human measurements. There's Nick Varney, president of the National Honor Society, who also starred in tennis, basketball and golf. He won the coveted B'nai B'rith award for a male student in the Roanoke Valley. A quiet fellow, Varney reveals his care for people by playing the piano for residents at the nearby Richfield Retirement home, Robison notes.
He'll move on to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro having earned a Hall of Fame golf scholarship of $1,500 a year.
Kristy Robinson, another honor student and the school's other B'nai B'rith nominee, excelled in basketball, softball and volleyball. She has always impressed the guidance counselor because of her ability to make losers in a game feel they've done their best. Robinson's going to Virginia Tech with a $2,000 business scholarship.
Then there are the top honor students, Emily Martin, the valedictorian with a grade-point average of 4.0339, and Crystal Hagerman who takes second honors with 3.825. Martin, Robison says, "has been number one since the ninth grade. She never disappoints you." Martin will go to Freed-Hardeman University in Tennessee. She hopes to teach math. Hagerman plans to attend Virginia Tech.
Then there's Allison Waymack, a soccer star interested in a career in environmental management. Virginia Tech is also her choice and she goes with a $1,000 renewable scholarship from the Blue Ridge Soil and Conservation District.
When Brandi Downor enrolls in Liberty University in Lynchburg, she'll go with $8,000 in financial aid given over four years. She, too, is in the top 10 academically.
A new scholarship given in memory of one of the class of '95, Bryan Thomas, has been won by William "Casey" Mills, who will use the $1,000 to help on his tuition at Bridgewater College. He also will have football scholarship aid.
The school, which includes students in the seventh through the 12th grades - a middle school is in its future - also is among those which, Robison says, still regards a baccalaureate service as important. Arranged entirely by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, the service took place Sunday at Christian Life Fellowship Pentecostal Holiness Church in Salem.
A breakdown of statistics shows 38 percent of Glenvar's graduates plan to continue their education at community colleges; that's up from 32 percent a year ago. In 1994, 40 percent planned to attend four-year schools compared to 39 percent this year. Professional vocational schools will claim 9 percent with only 3 percent choosing military service. Eleven percent hope to find jobs following graduation.
This year 29 members of the class qualified as honor graduates with an grade point average of at least 3.0.
by CNB