14 graduate from Emmanuel Christian School

The 14 graduates of Emmanuel Christian School in Manassas will receive a considerable amount of financial help as they go off to college.

At the school’s 24th graduation ceremony Friday night, guidance counselor Brenda Tabacchi announced that the graduates would receive awards and scholarships totaling $898,728.

“This is very, very good for such a small class,” she told the audience.

All the graduates are planning to attend college at such institutions as the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, the University of South Alabama and Northern Virginia Community College.

At the commencement service, Headmaster Lawrence Landin told the graduates they were attending a “wonderful event,” and thanked the class “for what you have done and what you will do.”

Chancellor Rodney Autry said the class members that they had reached a “monumental milestone” in their lives, and added it was a great evening for them to celebrate.

He introduced the guest speaker for the evening, Chris Hobbs, who he said it was “a genuine delight and joy to welcome him back on the campus.

Hobbs, a physical education teacher at the school from 2000 to 2005 and was ordained to full-time ministry at Emmanuel Baptist Church in 2003, told the graduates, “You should be very proud of yourself because you have passed a milestone.”

“Each of you will follow 14 different paths and I urge each of you to help turn the world upside down. Do not be afraid to listen to what God tells you,” he concluded.
There were two salutatorian addresses.

Michelle Renee Strickland said, “We offer something unique in that we have the capacity to do great things with the opportunity before us.”

Annalise Marie D’Elia thanked the teachers “for the support they have given us all the way” and telling her fellow graduates, “I love you all.”

The valedictorian address was given by Amber Adelaide Strickland, who thanked God, family and friends for their spiritual guidance, adding “God’s faithfulness is there even when it seems to go another way. He has greater plans for us.”

As each of the graduates were given their diplomas, pictures of their younger days were flashed on a large screen. They were also given the opportunity to cite their favorite passage from the Bible and thank those responsible for seeing them through graduation.

Another highlight of the evening was the “passing of the flame,” in which each of the seniors passed on a lighted candle to the junior class members, who will follow them next year as the class of 2010.

James Jackson, chairman of the school’s board of education, gave the prayer of dedication telling the graduates to “put your hope in God” while asking God “to guide and protect them.”

Saying the graduates have excelled and completed all requirements for graduation, Landin presented diplomas to Kyle Louis Ater, Albert Norman Ayoub, D’Elia, Christian Anthony Figueredo, Stephanie Carol Gomez, Douglas James Keyes, Rebekah Elizabeth Lloyd, Kathleen Joy O’Bannon, Anthony Gayle Quarto, James Daniel Stanley, Strickland, Strickland, Olivia Valentina Tabacchi and RoseLena Joy Tabacchi.

Staff writer Bennie Scarton Jr. can be reached at 703-369-6707.