HHS Class of ‘07 graduates

Parents working half a world away joined the thousands gathered at Rams Stadium to watch their children graduate on Havelock High School Saturday morning.

The school’s 50th graduating class became the first to have its commencement carried live on the Internet, allowing U.S. service members deployed overseas to share the rite of passage.

Megan Radford, the school’s Student Council president, encouraged her 217 fellow graduates to pursue their dreams.

“I hope your dreams take you to the corners of your smiles, to the windows of your opportunities and to the most special places your hearts have ever known,” she said, quoting a popular message for grads.

Valedictorian Kelsey Meekins collected and condensed such popular wisdom in her address to the graduating class, exhorting her classmates to “stand up for the little guy, fight injustice and do what makes you happy.”

“When I sat down to write this speech, I drew a blank,” she said. “So I did what any normal person would do — I Googled memorable quotes.”

Craven County Board of Education members Kim Smith and Joseph Walton were in attendance, along with Bill Rivenbark, superintendent of Craven County Schools, and county commissioners Lee Kyle Allen and Theron McCabe.

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