Congratulations to the 2009 Graduates
of Red Mountain High School
Welcome parents, family, friends, distinguished guests and our graduating seniors. Tonight we are conducting the 21st graduation ceremony for the class of 2009.
We are a large comprehensive high school that excels in many areas of learning that include performing arts, sports, clubs, service learning opportunities and of course academics. Despite extraordinarily difficult times for the nation and world, the Red Mountain class of 2009 had an excellent year. The leadership provided by our graduating seniors produced many outstanding accomplishments. In a moment it will be my honor to review those accomplishments. However, before I begin, I believe it is appropriate to reference the extraordinary times that our students and their supporting families have had to endure.
Our nation and world faced many challenges. It was once said that the times in which we live define us as a people. In the song and words of Billy Joel “We didn’t start the fire.” Our students witnessed some amazing events that will forever be remembered and associated with their senior year of high school. Thirty years from now our seniors will share these world changing stories with their grandchildren just as their grandparents have related great historical events to them.
The year in review started with the Beijing Summer Olympics hosted by the most populated nation in the world. It showcased some amazing athletic performances in Olympic history; remember Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt? How about the opening and closing ceremonies that highlighted a rapidly developing culture as the world watched from the bird’s nest? Next we watched two national party conventions and a presidential campaign that was described as the most important ever, and that promised waves of change. Several debates and some surprises kept all of us guessing what the future would hold for us individually and as a nation. TIME magazine reported the highest interest ever by young people and a number of students here tonight went to the polls and voted for the first time. After the polls closed, who can forget that unseasonably warm fall evening in Chicago when President elect Barrak Obama gave an acceptance speech to hundreds of thousands of people? The election of the first African-American president will be highlighted in future American History textbooks. As the election year was concluding, an economic crisis had already begun,
Wall Street was in a panic. Described as the worst economic times since the Great Depression, just about every American household was affected in some capacity. Housing foreclosures, corporate bailouts, job layoffs, massive unemployment, coupled with a continued fight against terrorism on two war fronts, seemed to dominate the airwaves and our graduating seniors were not even at the semester break yet. As we celebrated the New Year, we were exposed to more economic problems. Bankruptcies, corporate takeovers, state budget deficits, followed by more stimulus packages. The only good news reported was the miracle on the Hudson. At the end of the gauntlet, was the Swine Flu pandemic. Can you spell Stressed Out?? In the center of this perfect storm, our seniors and their teachers conducted business as usual at Red Mountain. Let’s review that business as usual.
ACADEMICS
This year’s graduating class was offered $10,883,964 in scholarship money. Two students received appointments to the military academics; one to West Point and one to the Air Force Academy. Seven students received National Merit Scholarships, the most awarded in Mesa Public Schools. Three students received National Hispanic recognition. 218 students received scholarships to ASU, U of A, and NAU. Maricopa Community Colleges have offered 123 academic scholarships to our graduating seniors. Students earned 27 academic scholarships to out-of-state colleges exclusive of tuition waivers. 47 service organizations scholarships were received by our students. I am also proud to announce that Red Mountain High School had the most recipients in Mesa Public Schools for the following awards. We had 1 Flinn Scholarship winner as well as 13 Red Mountain graduates who will major in education as a result of the “Mesa Grow Your Own Teacher Program.” 90 students will receive AIMS high tuition waiver for exceeding on all three AIMS tests and maintaining a 3.5 GPA.
The Academic Decathlon team won the regional championship for the first time in school history and placed second in the state championship with two students placing second and third overall in their division. The team took home over $80,000 in scholarships. Our BrainStorm team placed second beating out over 60 other schools.
SERVICE LEARNING
The altruism of this Millennial generation is well documented at Red Mountain. Service Learning is in the fabric of the Mountain Lion culture. We had over 600 students involved with Service Learning activities which included a wide variety of clubs and organizations.
Club RIF (Reading is Fundamental) in its 21st year sponsored KID RIF Day, several book distributions, as well as tutored students from Salk Elementary four days a week. RIF tutors spent 8 hours a week sharing the joy of literacy with students in the community.
Student Council adopted 100 children for the holidays preparing and delivering gifts, they donated 16,000 pounds of food and gave 450 pints of blood. Aware of the difficult economic times, they made sure 75 students had the opportunity to attend the Red Mountain prom.
Students in the JROTC program contributed 1,043 hours of community service to Red Mountain.
Club Diversity raised $2,000 for Christmas Angels that bought 16 Angels and 4 Adopt a Family gifts and was the biggest volunteer group at both the American Diabetes Walk and the Juvenile Diabetes Walk. The Red Mountain Dance Force raised over $1,400 for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life event. Students in HERO volunteered at the Red Mountain Senior Center. The teacher training program donated 1,188 hours of intern service at Falcon Hill and Salk Elementary schools. Best Buddies collected $300 worth of books for underprivileged children. They also sponsored the Arizona toy drive for impoverished Maricopa County students in grades K-3. Sports Medicine seniors logged 3,000 hours of Service Learning working with athletes. In summary, our seniors alone participated in over 47,000 hours of service within the school and community.
ATHLETICS
Athletically, Red Mountain was represented in the Five A Division I state finals in boy’s soccer and girl’s softball. We had 8 East Valley Regional Championships and 20 of our 21 sports qualified for state tournaments. It should be noted that our Mountain Lions won 72% of all games played by Red Mountain teams. Division I athletic scholarships were earned by Lucy Aubrecht (softball to ASU).
CLUBS
JROTC had another great year. They were active supporting on campus events, participating in state sponsored competitions, several parades, and 33 exhibition drill performances for local community organizations. They revalidated as an “Honor Unit with Distinction” for the 11th consecutive year and won the state Orienteering Championship for the first time in program history.
The FFA Chapter at Red Mountain won the state championship in 3 events (Floriculture, Nursery Landscape, and Aquaculture) and will represent the state of Arizona at National in Indiana. Students in FFA earned $4,200 in scholarships. They also earned 4 state and 1 American Degree Award. Mr. Sorensen was selected as the District FFA teacher of the year.
StRUT (Students Recycling Used Technology) refurbished and donated over 400 computer systems. Jacob Schaer, placed 1st in the Computer Maintenance Technology contest and will represent AZ at the national competition in Kansas City in June.
The Envirothon Team placed 2nd in Wildlife and Forestry and 2nd in Aquatic Ecology in the state Environthon competition this year.
Our journalism students participated in the 2009 Arizona Interscholastic Press Association contest. Red Mountain placed in five events. Yearbook students also placed in five events. A glance at the 2009 yearbook is evidence of this award winning group of students.
The Model UN won 2nd place at the MCC Model UN Conference.
Mind’s Eye celebrated their 20th year of consecutive publications with the biggest book ever, 244 pages representing the work of 85 RMHS student writers, artists and photographers. Our COE team took 3rd place in the annual Arizona Council on Economic Education Stock Market Game. Art students earned $1,400 in scholarships and placed the most students of all high schools in the Arizona State Art competition.
PERFORMING ARTS
The Performing Arts program had 72 students qualify as regional musicians, 21 as All-Star musicians. The Drama Club took 3 first place ratings in the State Thespian Competitions which earned an invitation to attend an International Thespian Festival. Choir, Band, and Orchestra came home with highest honors from their respective tours at the National level.
As we congratulate the graduates for the sacrifice, hard work and perseverance they have demonstrated during challenging times, I want to paraphrase the words of President Obama as he spoke to the graduating students at Arizona State University last week because they apply to our Red Mountain graduates as well.
We are the great American Story: Young people just like you, following their passions, determined to meet the times on their terms. With a high school diploma from Mesa Public Schools, you have everything you need to get started. You have no excuses not to change the world.
So, it is with great pride that I present the Red Mountain High School class of 2009. I hereby certify that these students have satisfactorily completed the course of study prescribed for graduation by the Mesa Unified School Districts Governing Board and the requirements of the Arizona State Board of Education.