6:00pm: Sportsline with Tony Caridi

Riverside, South Charleston seniors ready for next chapter

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two more Kanawha County schools took part in their respective graduation ceremonies Monday evening in downtown Charleston.

South Charleston High School’s class of 2023 received their diplomas inside the Municipal Auditorium, while seniors from Riverside High School graduated inside the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.

Seniors from both schools waited with anticipation for this moment of walking across the stage to receive their diploma. For one senior of South Charleston, her university of choice is only a few miles from her high school.

Kyleigh Bulger is going from a black eagle to a golden eagle as she will join the women’s basketball team next year at the University of Charleston. Bulger will be studying Sports Media and Communications at UC.

“The people,” she said. “The teachers at South Charleston too, they prepared us for this very well. I’m gonna miss them.”

Although she won’t be too far down the road from the South Charleston community.

Others like Kennedy Perry from Riverside High School, who graduated with high honors, will have more of a trip to her next education destination.

Perry will be studying exercise physiology at West Virginia University in Morgantown, which is more than a two hour drive up to the northern part of the state. She too thanked the many different people that got her and her classmates to this point.

“Without the support of family, friends, and teachers, we would not have been able to come this far,” said Perry, calling this time not an ending, but “a new beginning.”

The same could be said by Riverside graduate Max Hall, who hopes to become an aerospace engineer with the help from his next school.

“Graduation is not just a moment of celebration, it is a turning point,” he said.

Both principals, Kim Williams from South Charleston and Jane Kennedy of Riverside, spoke highly of their graduating class of 2023 and reminded their graduates to be kind and not forget where they came from and who got them to this point.

The final graduations for Kanawha County Schools are Tuesday with George Washington and Nitro High Schools. GW seniors will graduate inside the Civic Center. Nitro’s graduation is in the Municipal Auditorium. Both ceremonies begin at 7 p.m.