Mayor Fung hosts annual Best and Brightest Ceremony

While there are several high schools located within the City of Cranston, not all Cranston students attend those schools.

For the past nine years, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung has held a small, private reception at City Hall that acknowledges all the hard work, dedication and determination of all the Cranston students who are part of the Class of 2017.

This year had the highest number of students ever, which amounted to 87. The last time they had anything even close to that was in 2015 with 70 students.

Fung also noted that this year, 68 percent of the recipients were female.

Opening his remarks, Mayor Fung congratulated all the students on their successes and hard work.

“This is my ninth year doing this ceremony. It allows us to bring together not just the students in Cranston schools, but all the great institutions across Rhode Island,” he said.

Fung commented that he recognized many faces of the students in the crowd and it made him feel old.

“You are all moving onto those next steps in your lives, whatever they may be. I am proud of all your hard work not only in the classroom, but in the greater communities as well. We have remarkable students in this room tonight. There is Girl Scout Gold Star, athletes, DECA, musicians and artists, Skills USA competitors. They are multitalented individuals who have all contributed in some way to Cranston and Rhode Island,” he said.

He read off a partial list of schools where these graduates will be going on to and it spread across the U.S. from east to west coast and north to south.

“We are expecting a lot from you, not just excelling in school, but in life, and making a better Cranston, better country and a better world,” he concluded.

Students that are recognized in the top five percent for Cranston East, West and Career and Tech. All other schools, the students ranked in the top seven percent. 

This year’s citation recipients were from Bay View Academy:

Alexa Brooks Major, Brooke DiDonato, Cassandra Gendron, Corinne Krajewski, Jaclyn Levesque, Marisa Mobilia, Olivia Soccio and Michaela Vieira.

Cranston Area Career & Technical Center students were: Alexia Alchihed, Theresa Brown, Briana Fernandes, Daniella Ferranti, Collin Gershkoff, Angelina Gudoshnik, Karim Jamous, Erica Kite, Francesca Laurenza, Alice Lim, Jester Lippert, Meghan Marchetti, Christina Mee, Luis Mendoza, Jacob Meyerson, Anna Phou, Alyssa Ragosta, Sydney Rainone, Daniel Roussel and Ariana Wynn.

Bishop Hendricken was represented by: Michael Bittner, John Coutu, Michael DiFabio, Giancarlo Gentilli, Nicholas Grieco, Daniel Rugiero, Samuel Laurie and Christopher Hindle.

The New England Laborer’s Construction Career Academy students were: Mikayla Albanese and Alexandra Palmisano.

LaSalle Academy seniors were: Ashley Bonin, Allyson Desrosiers, Peyton Phillips and Alyson Walsh.

Cranston High School East was represented by Kadie Carter, Nicole DeAngrlis, Nicole Eaton, Emma Gherardi, Noah Gibb, Elias Hill, Laney Kong, Samantha Levy, Miya Lohmeier, Katrina Marek, Joseph Murphy, Alexander Norberg, Shantel Orellana, Ashley Paquin, Talia Parente, Katerina Rodriguez, James Rowell, Megan Scarborough, Rose Smith-McGowan and Juliette Xiong.

Cranston High School West had the following students: Brett Bucci, Emanuela Civita, Noah Cohen, Sophia DiMascolo, Christopher Dodd, Taleen Donoyan, Anita Fang, Shannon Feng, Ashley Flaherty, Lily Hamin, Lauren Knasin, Noah Levin, McKenzie Moore, Grace Ohsberg, Sophia Perrotta, Fallon Plociak, Sarah Richer, Abigail Souza, Talia Spirito and Julissa van Renselaar.

From the Wheeler School was Russell Brown, Jordan Cannon, Andrew Mancini, Thomas Satterthwaite and Molly Usher.