ABC6 honors students in “Best of the Class” event
By John DeLuca
The best and the brightest young minds of Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts gathered together Tuesday for a special honor.
The ABC6 “Best of the Class” event was held at Roger Williams University in Bristol. The top high school students from our area had a special photo shoot and shared their big plans for the future.
The keynote speaker was Colonel Steven O’Donnell, head of the Rhode Island State Police, who told the crowd to never give up on your dreams.
“You worked hard, you studied hard. Continue to do that and don’t take your foot off the accelerator… If you’re almost there and want to go in a different direction, go in that direction, follow your heart,” O’Donnell told the students.
All the teens are college-bound, and many of them going to Brown.
Since all of those ultra smart students were in one spot, ABC6 wanted to get their thoughts on what’s going in the world. We talked about everything from the death penalty for Tsarnaev, climate change, the 2016 Presidential Election, and even genetically modified food.
Topic number one: the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
“I feel it was justified because of what he caused people who’ve died and were injured,” said Michael Jimenez, of Providence Career and Technical Academy.
“I don’t think it’s within the rights of a government to take another person’s life,” said Douglas Lebo, of Portsmouth Abbey.
Nick Sadowski, of School One, said, “He wants to die because he thinks he’ll go to paradise…but if you sentence him to life in prison, I think that’s more of a punishment than killing him.”
The 2016 Presidential Election came up and these future voters told us what they’re looking for in a candidate.
“I’m definitely looking for somebody who will be able to give me more educational benefits. Right now I’m struggling a little bit with school and how I’m going to be able to pay that off,” explained Keyla Dehoyos, of Davies Career-Tech High School.
“I’ll definitely be voting next year and something I’m definitely looking for in a candidate. Someone who wants to help out people like me—middle class,” said Michael Jiminez.
“It’s exasperating to watch them for four years fight with one another instead of actively getting things done,” said Douglas Lebo. “It’s not going to happen, but I can keep hoping.”
Global warming: man made or something happening naturally with the earth?
“People keep saying and scientists keep proving that this is an issue and needs to be faced…and yet it seems that we are doing next to nothing about it,” explains Lily Hemler, of Ponagansett High School.
“One hundred percent man made,” continued Douglas. “There are a lot of things we can do to slow it down and stop it and hopefully reverse course.”
“We’ve had an ice age, we’ve warmed up, things are happening. Science keeps on changing. You know, I really don’t know,” said Nick Sadowski.
Genetically modified food was also discussed—that’s because Lily Hemler will be studying food science at Cornell. She wants people to know that it’s not “Franken food”.
“I think that’s the biggest misconception that people are very afraid of genetically modified foods, but in reality, it could be so helpful to developing countries,” explained Lily.
For what it’s worth, not one of the five students we spoke with expects to work in Rhode Island after graduating. They weren’t necessarily against it, but they said they will go where the jobs are… and they don’t expect them to be here.
ABC6 would like to thank Michael, Keyla, Douglas, Nick, and Lily for speaking with us today. We wish you and all of the Best of the Class students nothing but the best as you go off to college.
© WLNE-TV 2015
