CHICO — The sounds of Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten” floated out to the audience as 121 graduates tapped their toes and bobbed their heads to the beat Thursday evening at the CORE Butte High School graduation ceremony. The song, performed by Maddy Taylor, Ashley Harp, Chloe Evans, Jake Donahoo and Jacob Shockley, was a telling portrait for the graduates as the song lyrics include “today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.” And indeed, their books are just beginning.
Kimberley Hutton, whose son, Casey Rhine, was one of the graduates, spoke proudly of her son’s achievements before the ceremony. She said Rhine intends to start college at Butte College in the fall and then transfer to Chico State to major in engineering. “His interest in engineering started with him playing with blocks as a toddler and then moving on to Legos,” Hutton reminisced with a laugh.
“There was always building going on.” Hutton said Rhine finished school in December but was walking Thursday. She said he was on independent study and won two awards, the Golden State merit award for demonstrating mastery of the high school curriculum in six subject areas and the Presidential award for academic excellence.
He maintained a GPA of 3.9. Rhine is also a Camp Fire survivor.
Candace Beveridge is the grandmother of CORE Butte 2024 Valedictorian Aricka Hickman. Pride was written all over Beveridge’s face as she talked about her granddaughter. She said Hickman plans to s.