Meet three local high school grads starting college this month

WHAT MATTERS WARREN
Meet three local high school grads starting college this month:
Ryan Caperton, Katelyn Thompson and Jacqui Ris

We were all young once, let’s make time to offer our friendship, mentorship and support to those youth who are stepping into a new college year this month, especially the many freshman heading out on their own for the first time!

When I was pregnant with my son (who just started high school himself), I decided to start a tradition of giving annual scholarships to local high school graduates because I felt so thankful to have been a WCHS grad (President, Class of 1994) who was fortunate enough to return to my hometown to start a family of my own. I remember the honor and the inspiration that I felt from the support of adults in the community who believed in me when I headed off to college, and I wanted to return the generosity.

The criteria for my “Hometown Scholarship” is to write an essay about what growing up in Front Royal/Warren County has meant to the applicant.  I now have over 175 essays that I’d love to publish one day because each of them is so heartwarming. This year, I’d like to share an excerpt from both of the winners and wish them, and all graduates, the best as they start their new adventures.

Jacqui Ris

Also, in this WHAT MATTERS Warren video, I’d like you to be inspired by the unfolding bright future of Jacqui Ris, another local high school graduate who has just begun studying cinema at VCU.  I filmed the video this summer and got to know and respect her after hiring her to create a fantastic (soon to be released) lyric video for  “What Matters is your Heart” (sung by Herbie Kawuma, currently available for download on Amazon Music and iTunes and soon to be launched as the first dollardreamdownload.com).

Let’s find time to reach out to the graduates or college students we know and offer our encouragement and be inspired by the youth of our community!

Katelyn Thompson

Katelyn Thompson, 2018 Warren County High School Graduate attending Virginia Tech

“I am proud to have been raised here as I have gotten to meet amazing people and live in a beautiful place. Not many can say that they live right here in the middle of the Shenandoah Valley and that people from across the nation (sometimes even the globe) travel here to see Front Royal’s beauty and explore Shenandoah National Park…..Here, families have plenty of room to actually live, go explore nature, teach their kids how to ride bikes, etc. Families don’t have to “live life in the fast lane” out here….Front Royal offers the perfect balance of a growing, modern town and a quaint, rural one, which makes me proud to call it my home.”

Ryan Caperton

Ryan Caperton, 2018 Skyline High School Graduate attending Lynchburg College

“Front Royal means everything to me because it is where my childhood memories are instilled and it is where I have grown up and become a man….I want to have such a successful career that I inspire the kids of Front Royal that anyone can make it no matter what you have been through and return and give back to the community.  I want to be the voice of all the kids in Front Royal, I want to be their role model that they look up to. Twenty/Thirty years from now I want to be able to look at Front Royal and see that I had a major impact on the town and its people.”