May 26, 2006
Friday

Revilla Alternative High School some say is for those students in our community that are the under achievers and for those that don't matter. I've heard all the rhetoric, read most of the letters, and news articles and I want to clarify a few points and brag about our daughter, Callie Mirsky, who proudly graduated from Revilla High School back in 1998.

The high school social scene was not her bag and instead at 16 years of age she opted to attend the afternoon class at Revilla and worked full time holding down two jobs one at E.C. Phillips and the other at J. Jacobs' clothing store before it closed. All the while she successfully completed on average six sessions of school work per day of better then average quality work.

She had a goal to graduate early and she did. She finished two years of high school requirements in less then eight months and graduated in the spring of 1998.

Instead of going off to college immediately she opted to work full time for four years, saving money for her eventual goal, to go to college and become a lawyer.

On Friday, May 19, 2006 as her mother and I proudly watched her graduate from Sacramento State University in Sacramento California with High Honors I reflected back on the effort and dedication that she put into her studies while a student at Revilla High School and how she put forth that same effort while attending college, attending as a full time student while holding down a full time job. While I sat their watching her graduate college I was perplexed by how in past six weeks all of the same old stigmas about the students that attend Revilla have been resurrected in our local media and in letters to Sit News some of which seem to imply that students that attend Revilla High School are to some degree considered non relevant individuals.

My daughter is a proud graduate of Revilla High School and the telephone call and letter that she received yesterday afternoon from the Dean of Students accepting her application to attend McGeorge School of Law in the fall of this year prompted her call me and to request that I give thanks the staff at Revilla High School for all the support that they gave her to help start her on her road to Law School.

Revilla High School allows students that are independent hard chargers to work independently at their own pace and gives those students that take that challenge and run with it the opportunity to graduate early and to take on life s challenges at an early age. Good bad or indifferent it definitely in the end instilled a positive influence on our daughters life. It gave her the confidence to move on. There were rocky times for her as she moved forward but in the end she attributes her experience at Revilla as her first real motivating push in life.

To all the dedicated past an present staff members at Revilla High School we sincerely thank what you did for our daughter in giving her that initial motivating push.

Sincerely,
Ralph and Lauren Mirsky
Ketchikan, AK - USA

About: Eight year Kedtchikan resident, small business owner and proud parents of a Revilla graduate.

 

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