Email   Print   Share By Heather Graham-Ashley, Sentinel News Editor

Facebook Digg Delicious June 7, 2012 | Living

Class of 2012 Shoemaker High School graduates react following the awarding of diplomas Sunday at the Bell County Expo Center. At the ceremony, 451 Shoemaker students graduated. Of those, eight students had parents deployed overseas during the graduation. Heather Graham-Ashley, Sentinel News Editor

School namesake and retired Gen. Robert Shoemaker congratulates Brittnay Garza as she receives her diploma Sunday at the Bell County Expo Center. Heather Graham-Ashley, Sentinel News Editor

When Mickel Lattibeaudiere moved to Killeen from Virginia following his mother’s assignment to Fort Hood in 2010, he felt overwhelmed and alone.

Two years later, on Sunday, Lattibeaudiere delivered remarks at his Shoemaker High School graduation ceremony as a confident, popular student-athlete selected by his classmates to speak at the ceremony.

Meeting teachers and new friends, and playing football helped him fit in at the school and prepared him for the future, he said.

“I feel my time here has helped me develop strength, and my confidence has grown,” Lattibeaudiere told more than 450 fellow graduates and their friends and Families. “It helped prepare my future to be brighter.”

Among his proudest moments at Shoemaker, Lattibeaudiere noted the football team snapping a 31-game losing streak and a lesson from the football coach.

“He told us to grind it out every day when things get tough,” Lattibeaudiere said.

A similar message was delivered to the graduates from Brig. Gen. Clark LeMasters Jr. via a video message from Afghanistan.

The 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) commanding general said he and his Soldiers shared in the graduates’ excitement as they begin the next chapters of their lives, and he offered encouragement to them for the future when chasing their goals.

“Just don’t give up,” LeMasters said. “Through perseverance, you will get there.”

Looking toward the future and giving a nod to the past were themes that echoed throughout the ceremony.

“Today marks the beginning of a new stage,” Salutatorian Maria Delgado Reyes said. “We are walking away from high school and into adulthood.”

Shoemaker graduate Zabrina Alvarado, whose father is a Fort Hood Soldier, said she feels prepared for the future. As a military Family member, Alvarado attended two different high schools.

She said the large military Family presence at Shoemaker helped her. Deployments, permanent change of station moves and new schools and friends can be challenging for military youth.

“It made it easier to know others go through the same thing,” Alvarado said.

She was not alone in her sentiments.

Lattibeaudiere mentioned his moves and his mother’s deployments in his remarks. Eight of the 451 graduates walked the stage on Sunday while their parents are serving overseas. Six students’ parents watched the ceremony over video-teleconference.

Brittnay Garza is another military Family member and Shoemaker graduate, but she attended Killeen schools since fourth grade. Her father, a 1st Cavalry Division Soldier, recently returned from deployment.

Having military parents will benefit both Garza and Alvarado as they take their next steps and use their fathers’ GI Bills to help pay for college.

“It definitely helps out with college,” Alvarado said.

When asked, the girls were split about following their fathers into service.

Garza plans to study audio engineering and music production. Alvarado wants to be a physical therapist in the Air Force.

Regardless of the graduates’ planned next move, the Expo Center was filled with proud Family members and friends.

Shadrach Howell came from Mississippi to see his first-born, daughter Anawz’he Howel, graduate on Sunday.

“I am very proud,” he said. “I want her to do well and wish her luck in the future.”

Anawz’he will begin studies in the fall at Central Texas College in hopes of eventually becoming a nurse practitioner, he added.

Her brother Malik, an incoming junior at Shoemaker next fall, was also looking forward to his sister’s next step.

“I’m just trying to get her out of the house,” Malik said.

Cheering the graduates from the stage was another man who stood and proudly shook hands with every graduate. Honored guest and school namesake retired Gen. Robert Shoemaker congratulated the graduates and shared in their moment, just as he has done throughout their time at the high school.

Shoemaker and his wife, Tuke, remain involved with the students at Shoemaker High School and are familiar visitors to the campus.

Class Valedictorian Darius Tolbert, who will be attending Johns Hopkins University in the fall, thanked the former III Corps and Fort Hood commander.

Tolbert assured the retired general his efforts and presence are appreciated and remembered.

“Thank you, Gen. Shoemaker, for making all of this possible,” Tolbert said. “We’ll do our best to represent our alma mater in the best possible light.”