Lakeside High School closed out the Columbia County School District’s 2025 school year with a celebration of 471 graduates.
One graduate, Campbell Harison, hopes to eventually return to Lakeside as its principal.
“I want to make a full circle,” said Harison, who wants to follow in the footsteps of Lakeside’s current principal Juliet King. “She truly has inspired me in so many ways.”
“I just want to make sure that I can inspire children like my teachers in my past have,” she added. Harison plans to major in early childhood education at Georgia College and State University.
For Kai Agyemang, the most influential thing he did in high school was getting involved in clubs and organizations, namely the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC).
Today, Agyemang is preparing to attend the United States Air Force Academy, and he said his time in JROTC largely helped direct him.
“JROTC definitely helped me decide,” he said. “Entering high school, I wanted to pursue a career in the military, but I didn’t know exactly if it was for me or not, but through all the leadership roles I got to take on at lakeside…I knew that was the career for me.”
Valedictory, salutatory speeches
Valedictorian George Zhou addressed his fellow graduates with a brief speech on resilience.
“The path to success to anything worthwhile, is rarely ever smooth,” he said. “It is littered with challenges and setbacks, but it is in these struggles, these doubtful times, that we truly discover our capabilities.”
Salutatorian Jerry Fan spoke about the passage of time.
“Time itself is a funny concept because it doesn’t really pass in your mind until you check your watch again and see that a few minutes have gone by without you keeping track, or when you open your calendar to see that you only have a month of high school left,” he said.
“30 years from now, we might not remember what a derivative is or that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell,” he added. “But I hope we all remember the time we’ve wasted in class creating memories.”
Future military service
During the ceremony, a number of students were recognized for choosing to join various branches of the military.
Students planning to serve in the U.S. Army include Toni Darrisaw, Lauren Frazier, Matthew Gipson and Steven Matanane.
Graduates planning to serve in the U.S. Navy include Lucas Harper and Isabelle Peck.
Students planning to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps include Immanuel An, Nathaniel Burt, Tristen Maclauchlan and Oliver ward.
A graduate planning to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard include Runiya Harrell.
Students planning to serve in the U.S. Air Force include Kai Agyemang with an Air Force Academy appointment, John Epps with an Air Force Academy appointment, AnnMarie Hughes, Isaiah Jemison, Dylan Johnson, Ramsey Johnson and Abigail Sowa.
