North Forest High celebrates first graduating class


In all, 218 students graduated as part of North Forest High School’s first graduating class on Thursday, June 4 in a ceremony at the M.O. Campbell Center. North Forest High School opened in the fall of 2008 after the consolidation of the former Forest Brook and M.B. Smiley high schools.

Class of 2009 valedictorian was Symone Booker. Salutatorian was Amanda Holland. Both young ladies congratulated and encouraged their classmates.

“Nothing has stopped us from sitting in these seats right now,” Booker told her peers. “Please don’t stop here. We set the tone for our lives.”

Holland also urged fellow students to pursue their dreams. “Today we have accomplished the first step of the rest of our lives,” she said. “We’ve got to jump in there… confident about our potential to achieve greatness. Get out there and take hold.”

Members of the class of 2009 earned more than $633,000 in scholarships and will attend colleges and university across the state and country.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee delivered the commencement speech, congratulating the students and issuing a challenge of her own. North Forest ISD is part of the 18th Congressional District, which Lee has represented since 1995. She has been an avid supporter of the District. Most recently, Congresswoman Jackson Lee was instrumental in partnering with Comcast to bring that organization’s Comcast Cares Day to North Forest High School to paint the school gymnasium.

“I feel as proud as all of these parents, grandparents, friends and neighbors who have come here today,” Congresswoman Lee said.

Evoking President Barack Obama’s appeal to Americans to engage in some type of service or volunteerism, Lee asked members of the NFHS class of 2009 to consider what ways they might serve their own communities and the country.

“Commit yourselves to serving America and to making America better,” she told the students. “The world is waiting for you.”