Give it up for the Class of 2020
Let me introduce just some of our graduating Seniors who are both current and past participants of Groundwork Bridgeport! This year’s graduating class included students graduating from Bassick, Bridgeport Regional Aquaculture, Bullard Havens, Central, Fairchild Wheeler, Fairfield Warde, Harding, Kolbe Cathedral, and University High School of Science and Engineering. We had 22 high school seniors graduate from high school this year with 81% going on to college along with 9% going into the military, 1% taking off the fall semester, and 1% immediately working instead of pursuing college.
Many of the graduating seniors are current Groundwork Bridgeport youth participants like Sabrina Dasilva, who started with Groundwork Bridgeport during the summer of 2018. She graduated from Kolbe Cathedral High School in June, where she excelled academically and athletically, she was President of her class and captained her school’s soccer team, while still significantly contributing to Groundwork Bridgeport.
After receiving multiple acceptance letters, Sabrina decided to attend Bowdoin College in Maine. Interestingly enough, she learned about Bowdoin after a visit to the school was included in a Groundwork Bridgeport led trip to Acadia National Park last Summer, where Sabrina was one of five students selected to go on the trip. Program Lead, Tanner Burgdorf, grew up in Maine and had a connection to the college through a friend. Soon after finding out about her acceptance Sabrina notified us with “I got in! Thank you so much! I wouldn’t have even known about the school if it wasn’t for you!” Sabrina will be attending this Fall as a declared major of Neuroscience, but is very interested in Environmental Science as well.
We had a graduating senior, K’Serseyo (K’Ser) Htoo, who participated in our Hartford-based program. K’Ser graduated from University High School of Science and Engineering in Hartford, CT. K’Ser balanced his academics with a passion for soccer, playing goalkeeper for his school’s soccer team and got involved in many service opportunities throughout high school. He plans to attend UConn Hartford to pursue a degree in Education with the goal of becoming a teacher. Despite graduation ceremonies being changed to adapt to social distancing, K’Ser wanted to make sure we got to see him in his cap and gown. And sent along a message of “Hey, Tanner, even though you didn’t get to come to graduation, I wanted to send you a picture of me with the cap and gown,” along with his graduation photo.
Our students continually impress us with their accomplishments. Despite a scenario that was in no way ideal, they kept up with their academics and graduated during a pandemic. They have so much to be proud of as they continue onto the next chapter of their lives. Congratulations to the class of 2020!