41 PAHS grads to 'walk' Friday

From courts to beach STAFF PHOTO BY MURRAY JUDSON This group of Port Aransas High School seniors will be trading basketballs and tennis balls for beach balls after commencement cermonies tomorrow, Friday, June 1. The ceremonies will be at 8 p.m. in the Doyle Marek Gym at Port Aransas High School. Graduates celebrating early are, from left, Matt Dunton, Katie Coeckelenbergh, Whitney Williams, Katy Bridges (beach ball covering her face), Clark Smith and, in front, Leah Matthews. See Pages 6 and 7A for all the graduates and Pages 8 and 9A for scholarship recipients.

Forty-one Port Aransas High School seniors will close one chapter of their lives as they begin a new one during commencement ceremonies tomorrow, Friday, June 1.

Valedictorian Minda Willner and salutatorian Gina Burgess will lead their classmates into the Doyle Marek Gym at Port Aransas High School for the ceremony that begins at 8 p.m.

Each will deliver special addresses to their classmates, friends and families. The commencement address will be given by Dr. Ken Dunton, a member of the PAISD Board of Trustees whose third and last child to graduate from PAHS is a member of the Class of 2007.

The Marlin Band will provide the musical backdrop to the occasion, opening with the traditional "Pomp and Circumstance" and entertaining with "The Doors in Concert".

Willner entered PAISD as a second grader, left, then returned in seventh grade and has been here since. She was the recipient of the Jerry McDonald Citizenship Award in eighth grade and her senior year.

She has been a member of the National Honor Society for two years, and served as president her senior year. She also has been a member of the Interact Club for two years and was president her senior year.

Willner was president of her class as a sophomore, junior and senior, and organized the prom as junior class president.

A member of the UIL academic team, she competed in mathematics, calculator applications and accounting. She was a regional qualifier as a junior and senior, and placed sixth in regional accounting her senior year.

Willner played tennis her freshman and sophomore years in high school, is an AP Scholar, and was a Corpus Christi Caller Times Distinguished Scholar Finalist in the Service and Leadership category her senior year.

She will attend Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi where she will live on campus and study accounting and business.

Willner is the daughter of Susan and Woody Lawson of Port Aransas and Richard Willner of Victoria.

Burgess has competed in UIL for three years, winning first in editorial and fifth in literary criticism at regional. She competed at state in both categories. A member of the National Honor Society for two years, she is graduating in the distinguished program.

Burgess has been active in the arts community, creating artwork for the Beach Dash for the past two years and winning first place in the Celebration of Whooping Cranes and Other Birds arts contest. She created artwork that will be featured in the 2007 Deep Sea Roundup, and created the marlin and basketball hoop for the t-shirt commemorating the 2006 Marlin Classic.

She is the daughter of Rick and Dee Burgess of Port Aransas.