Pocono News Section

Holy Redeemer Graduates Its First Class

Holy Redeemer Graduates Its First Class - Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 4:54PM EST

Reported by: Mike Trim
Wednesday, Jun 4, 2008 @ 04:54pm EST
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY- How many high school students get to say they're the first graduating class of something? When Holy Redeemer seniors fill the seats Wednesday night, they'll be the school's first graduates.

Holy Redeemer graduate Anthony Aquilina says, "It was different but everyone like seemed to weld very nice and it was a fun year, a good experience for everyone."

Aqualina and 223 other graduates are reflecting on the year that was. Last year the Scranton Diocese consolidated four catholic schools to form Reedemer. The four schools were Bishop Hafey in Hazleton , Seton Catholic in Pittston, Bishop O'Reilly in Kingston , and Bishop Hoban in Wilkes-Barre .

Holy Redeemer graduate Natalie Adams says, "In the beginning it was kind of like, ummm, I don't know, you didn't know what to say to anybody, who to meet or who to talk to. It's kind of a rivalry between O'Riley and Hoban, but later on it got better, and everyone became good friends."

There were some bumps in the road. Students had to get used to a new grading system. Holy Redeemer graduate Krista Chakan says, "You got used to it. Everyone just got used to it. The first quarter it was just like wow, i just did really bad my first quarter or I did really really well my first quarter. "

But in the end, Principal James Redington says this class has something to be proud of. Redington says, "As they graduate tonight, not only are they thrilled and full of joy as they graduate, but they're also setting a precedent and they served as role models."

And these graduates aren't stopping with this successful year. Principal Redington says 99% of this graduating class is heading to college. As a whole, Redington says this class earned a whopping $12 million dollars in college scholarship money.