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• OCEARCH plies waters off Amelia Island in search of sharks

• Sharp rise in suicides raises questions about causes, prevention and ongoing care

• The Courage To Be...

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OCEARCH plies waters off Amelia Island in search of sharks

In 2007, Chris Fischer had a bit of an epiphany – he needed a bigger boat. Unlike Amity, Mass., Police Chief Martin Brody in the 1975 blockbuster movie, “Jaws,” Fischer needed the

boat to get closer to the sea’s apex predator; he wanted to study sharks, not kill them. By 2008, Fischer – a sports fisherman and host of television shows such as ESPN’s two-time Emmy Award-

winning “Offshore Adventure” – had sold the 69-foot Elliott yachtfisher that served as the floating set for “Offshore Adventure,” and purchased that “bigger boat.” The 126-foot former crabbing vessel, now dubbed the M/V OCEARCH, is outfitted with a hydraulic lift and a research platform capable of handling a 5,000-pound shark. It serves as the base for Fischer’s non-profit foundation, also named OCEARCH.

“OCEARCH’s mission is to democratize the exploration and science base in the ocean – to open up that world and then communicate it in a way that’s digestible and understandable and interesting,” Fischer told the News-Leader. “If you’re going to manage the resource, you’ve got to chase the data.”

The M/V OCEARCH recently spent more than two weeks off the shores of Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia chasing that data, and the News-Leader was invited to spend the final day of the expedition aboard the vessel as the crew sought to capture and tag a great white shark and gather data about why and when these predators are off the North Florida coast, and where they go from here.

Accompanied by crew members and scientists, including Gregory Skomal from MA Marine Fisheries, Jim Gelsleichter from the University of North Florida and Robert Hueter from Mote Marine Laboratory, the expedition’s goal was finding a male great white shark that would be the first to be SPOT (satellite) tagged in Atlantic waters. In addition, scientists on board were prepared to conduct innovative procedures such as performing an ultrasound on a pregnant female great white shark, and the use of a new shark-mounted tracking receiver that would allow scientists to gather information about the animals a tagged shark comes in contact with.

Fischer’s journey

Unconventional, charismatic, and sometimes controversial, Chris Fischer has his detractors, but he also has – literally and figuratively – a boatload of prominent scientists and conservationists who say his methods are breaking ground in both scientific research and in bringing the issue of ocean conservation to the forefront of public attention. Fischer’s approach of open-source science, networked data, leveraged publicity and corporate-sponsored expeditions – all driven by social media saturation – has turned the perception of jealously guarded intellectual property and competitive scientific research on its head. The M/V OCEARCH is a hub of scientific networking and collaboration.

Fischer himself is no scientist, and makes no effort to conceal that fact. His position is that of facilitator, providing the tools that allow scientists to do their work and the platform where information and education can reach the widest audience and do the most good.

A Kentucky native with a bachelor’s degree in business, Fischer followed a childhood interest in fishing into the entertainment industry. While his television shows captured a growing passion for conservation issues, they were, first and foremost, entertainment. Comments from scientists involved in his shows prompted Fischer’s shift from TV host to ocean advocate.

“After five or six scientists from different disciplines kept saying that we’re losing the sharks, and if we do that, the whole food chain collapses and we end up with a dead ocean, I asked them why we didn’t just manage the oceans back to abundance (by protecting) shark breeding and mating sites, and they said we didn’t know where those are,” Fischer said. “We didn’t know where our ocean’s lions are mating or giving birth – we didn’t have good data sets, or there was no data, on sharks.”

While he continued producing episodes of television shows such as “Ocean Hunter” and “Shark Men,” the tone of the shows followed Fischer’s lead in focusing more on conservation, sustainable fisheries and marine wildlife preservation. In the National Geographic series, “Shark Men,” Fischer and crew – including “Fast and

Furious” actor Paul Walker – made use of Fischer’s specially-outfitted “bigger boat” to lift gigantic sharks from the water, attach tracking tags, and collect data and samples before releasing them.

But Fischer has left the world of reality television behind. Since 2012, M/V OCEARCH’s science-based explorations are funded in large part by corporate sponsorships, providing a bridge between the academics and the practical. Major sponsors such as Caterpillar Inc., Costa Sunglasses, Landry and Yeti Coolers have allowed the work of tracking and capturing sharks, identifying breeding and feeding areas, and mapping migratory corridors and birthing sites, to continue. The sponsors get to leverage the high-profile publicity inherent in OCEARCH’s social media-savvy work.

Far from abandoning his lifelong love of sports fishing, Fischer’s message through OCEARCH continues to stress the importance – economically and culturally – of sportfishing.

“How can we expect anybody other than the recreational fisherman to save the ocean? It’s not going to be some environmentalist in a building in New York or D.C., it’s going to be the people that love it the most; those are the families that are fishing together, diving together, surfing together,” Fischer said. “So what we’re trying to do is get great fishermen together with great scientists so we have great data sets so we can manage our oceans toward abundance as soon as possible.”

An “Us versus Them” attitude between environmentalists and the general public is counter-productive, and finding the middle ground is the key to coming up with solutions that work in the real world, according to Fischer.

“Because (M/V OCEARCH) was the only ship in the world where (scientists) could have access to the big animals, I leveraged that to disrupt the institutional approach to research and to force collaboration; that’s ocean-first, that’s planet-first, that’s great- grandchildren-first,” he said, adding that the experience motivated him to make collaboration and a centrist approach the norm, not the exception.

“That’s starting to happen now. I think collaboration is a growing trend for sure,” he said, adding that people are beginning to realize that “if a suggestion to move forward is not practical, it’s polarizing – it has to be possible or nothing happens.”

“We (OCEARCH) are data-driven centrists; one of the reasons I’m trying to build a booming brand in the middle that is rooted in science and common senses is to drown out the polarizing fringe, because when the whole tone and trajectory of a conversation is dominated by the polarizing fringe, nothing happens,” he said. “They – the polarizers – are not negotiating from a position to find practical progress, they’re holding on to a position. If you’re a polarizer, you’re as bad as a poacher, and they may think they are trying to save the ocean, but when nothing happens, the ocean gets whacked.”

As the sharks go, so goes the ocean

Great white sharks are possibly one of the most recognized animals in the U.S., if not the world. Even those who have never been near an ocean are likely familiar with the torpedo-shaped bodies, the pointed snout, the white underbelly, and those rows of sharp, lethal teeth. From the ubiquitous Da-Dum...Da-Dum... Da-Dum-Da-Dum-Da-Dum of Peter Benchley’s “Jaws,” to recent photos of Deep Blue, a 20-foot shark filmed near Guadalupe Island in the Pacific Ocean, great whites have found their way into the myths, legends and cultural identity of generations of Americans. Add in shark-encounter stories such as that of surfer Bethany Hamilton losing her arm to a tiger shark in 2003, and it is not surprising that sharks of all species are viewed with emotions ranging from distrust to fear to outright hatred. However, information – from simple biology to detailed research – shows that sharks are a vital ecological component. Great white sharks, especially, play a pivotal role in the health of the world’s oceans.

The reputation of sharks as intentional, murderous killers is shifting – due in part to the Twitter accounts of many of OCEARCH’s tagged sharks – but for many species, it might be too late. Sharks are considered “at risk,” and many species are identified as a threatened or endangered. Although the 2015 Coastal Shark Survey indicates that the numbers of sharks along the U.S. east coast are improving, survey officials say there is still a long way to go to bring shark populations back to optimal levels.

According to the “International Action Plan for Sharks,” initiated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), more than 100 out of 400 shark species are being commercially exploited and "many of those species are so overexploited that even their long-term survival can no longer be guaranteed.”

An estimated 100 million sharks are killed each year. Whether caught accidentally in fishing nets and longlines of ocean-going fishing factories, killed for sport, or dying as a result of the wounds and trauma suffered when their fins are hacked off to make $100-per-bowl shark-fin soup, the declining number of sharks has a ripple effect on the ocean’s ecosystem. Destruction of shark habitats, especially mangroves that serve as shark “nurseries,” have also had a detrimental effect on shark populations, according to CITES research.

“Since sharks are top-level predators, they tend to have lower population numbers than other fishes. Sharks also have slow growth rates, mature late in life, and produce few offspring,” adds a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report. “These biological characteristics coupled with overfishing can reduce population levels to a point where recovery can take many years. A number of shark species have been overfished and are now protected by regulations in both state and federal waters.”

In Florida, both federal and state laws protect sharks. Harvest of 25 species of shark is prohibited in Florida, including the white shark, tiger shark, lemon shark and great hammerhead shark. Size limits and regulations on harvest of other shark species vary.

While concern over the survival of individual species is important, the impact of a declining shark population on the entire ocean ecology is an even greater concern, said Fischer. The balance of biodiversity depends on this apex predator. Without sharks, the species upon which they prey become overpopulated, which in turn decimates the populations of the next level of the food chain, which, in turn, makes the following level in the chain explode, with the rebound effect trickling down to affect every level of the oceanic food chain, including the health and survival of the ecologically important coral reefs.

OCEARCH’s “ocean-first” mission

Overall ocean conservation, through the study and protection of sharks, is the underlying mission of Fischer’s OCEARCH organization, and the purpose behind every M/V OCEARCH expedition. Data from blood and muscle samples, parasites and fin-clips taken from sharks during their carefully-monitored and regulated 15 minutes aboard the M/V OCEARCH, along with data from the GPS tags attached to the sharks’ fins, gives scientists clues to migration and mating patterns, which can, in turn, affect policy which will help conserve shark species and their habitat, Fischer said.

“OCEARCH facilitates unprecedented research by supporting leading researchers and institutions seeking to attain groundbreaking data on the biology and health of sharks, in conjunction with basic research on shark life history and migration,” states OCEARCH materials. “We believe in a balanced, science- based approach to rebuild, sustain, and conserve our living marine resources. Working with heads of state, policy makers and conservation organizations in the United States and abroad on ocean-based environmental issues, OCEARCH’s cooperative approach focuses on results instead of politics.”

Using the data and science discovered on the expeditions, combined with the popular shark tracker and companion mobile app and the public engagement with the now-personalized identities of great white sharks Mary Lee and Katharine, frequently tracked to the area off Amelia Island, Fischer has brought the general public on board with his mission.

“We need to get people involved in this conversation because it’s crucial for the future of the planet, and how can they get involved if they don’t know about it, and how can they know about it if they are not engaged. I didn’t set out on a plan to try and get people to have an emotional connection to sharks, that just happened,” he said. “Inclusion is inspiring, and that is organic inclusion that just manifested itself by open sourcing and giving it all away.”

Getting the public, especially the children, involved in the issue is vital, Fischer said.

“They are the resource managers of the future; we have to want them to grow up (so) the way they look at the planet and the ocean is centrist and science-driven, not some emotional fringe disposition,” he said.

During the early years of Fischer’s conservation efforts, while he was working with organizations such as National Geographic to produce his televisions shows, Fischer said he realized that “you couldn’t change the future of the ocean on a fisherman’s story,” but said he faced frustration and disappointment when trying to bring science to a more accessible, “ocean first” level focused on conservation not personal or institutional gain.

“I’m all about sustainability. People want to eat fish, people need to make a living going and catching those fish, but we just need to be clever about how we go about doing it so we’re sustainable,” Fischer said.

The elusive Great White

Although OCEARCH’s Jacksonville Expedition ended without capturing and tagging a great white, several tiger sharks were captured, tagged and released, and the samples and data collected from them will go a long way toward building the data sets needed to achieve conservation of the ocean’s sharks, Fischer said.

“We not only have a North Atlantic White Shark research project going on, we have a Southeastern United States tiger shark research project. We were coming down here to work on our white shark program and instead, the ocean decided to really enhance our tiger shark program, so the expedition was hugely successful for that,” he said.

To follow the migration patterns of OSEARCH’S tagged sharks, visit the Global Shark Tracker at www.OCEARCH.org.

Pull Quote1

"Tagging has really expanded our understanding of the movement patterns. Not only do the sharks appear to be moving back and forth between Florida and New England on a more regular basis than scientists suspected, they’re also traveling huge distances far out in the ocean. I think we had a very crude notion that the animals were here in the winter and in Cape Cod in the summer.” - Dr. Jim Gelsleichter, UNF Shark Biology Program Assistant Professor of Biology

Pull Quote2

“Inclusiveness is inspiring – it takes everybody to achieve the impossible.” - Chris Fischer, founding chairman and expedition leader of OCEARCH.

Box Smart Position and Temperature (SPOT) Tags

SPOT Tags are one of the most advanced technology tags used by researchers. Like the other types of tags, it records a variety of measurements, such as temperature, salinity, and depth. However, powered by a very powerful transmitter, SPOT Tags regularly send their recorded data to satellites. Recently, these tags have been successfully placed on the dorsal fin of sharks that swim at the surface. Source: Office Of Marine Programs, University of Rhode Island

   

Sharp rise in suicides raises questions about causes, prevention and ongoing care

Five years ago, on a beautiful summer evening in June, Monica Jordan sat at the end of the Fort Clinch pier and watched the sun set. In one hand, she held her Bible – in the other, a loaded 9 mm pistol.

“I had every intention of making that my last sunset,” she recently told the News-Leader. Jordan, now 38, said that some days, she calls her inability to pull the trigger that night a “failure” and

sometimes she calls it “God’s grace,” but mostly she just calls it fate. “The way my life was going then, I really did think that killing myself was the best answer to my problems, and

to be honest, the fact that I lived in a place like this only made it worse,” she said. “I mean, really, how can someone live here and be depressed, so I figured there must be something really wrong with me.”

For Jordan, the fact that Nassau County has the fifth highest rate of suicide in Florida does not come as much of a surprise.

“I know a lot of people here – whether just through day-to-day life or through whatever I’ve had to do to try and deal with my depression – that have seriously thought about or attempted suicide, and I know one that went through with it,” she said.

For Fernandina Beach resident Robert Little, living in Nassau County had little to do with his suicide attempt, but he said he could see how it can add to the impact of depression and increase the amount of social stigma attached to depression and suicidal thoughts.

Little, who was only recently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder despite having dealt with the effects of the condition his entire life, first attempted suicide at the age of 15.

“I suffered from depression my entire life; I always felt like an outsider and my childhood was very rocky and tumultuous,” he said. “When I was 15 years old, my best friend’s mother died on my birthday and he was taken away and I sunk into a depression and that’s when I had my first suicide attempt — I slit my wrist.”

Little, 58, has had two subsequent brushes with death by suicide, once in 2000 and again in 2006, but both times he sought help before taking that final step.

Looking back at those times when suicide seemed the only answer, Little said he was not in the midst of an emotional crisis that most people would equate with a suicide attempt.

“I remember, I just didn’t want to be … well, that’s it, I just didn’t want to be, period,” he said. “There wasn’t grief, there wasn’t anger, there wasn’t hurt — I had no feelings, no emotions at all, there was just nothing, just numbness and I was done.”

Counseling and medications help to deal with the depression that never completely goes away, both Jordan and Little said.

“There is no such thing as being healed, you just learn to keep your mind busy, but depression is always there beneath the surface, and if you dig too deep, you’ll find it,” Little said. “Sometimes it bubbles up and takes the joy out of doing anything, even the things I love.”

Resources and tools for coping with depression, mental illnesses or other issues that can lead to suicide do exist in Nassau County, but can be difficult to access for some people, Little and Jordan said.

“There are resources, but if you don’t have insurance, you’re on your own,” Little said. “Mental illness is a wealthy person’s problem, it seems like. If you don’t have money and you have those problems, you end up in jail or dead, but if you’re wealthy, you end up on a (counselor’s) couch and get help.”

Providing that safety net for people in crisis is a large part of the mission of Starting Point Behavioral Healthcare, said Laureen Pagel, Starting Point’s chief executive officer.

“I wish I knew the reason why we have the fifth highest suicide rate in the state,” she said. “We haven’t had any of our patients commit suicide. I don’t know if the people who commit suicide here are getting services elsewhere, but I would venture a guess that they are not accessing services and that is part of the issue.”

Nassau County’s sharp rise in the suicide rate – like those in other counties – began after the economic slump in 2008, and is influenced by the county’s rural status, according to Pagel.

“There was a link to the recession – people were desperate. They had lost everything,” she said. “Mental health services can’t give people money or a home or a job, but we can help people identify their strengths and what is positive in their lives and build on that step by step and day by day.”

Both counseling and medication are vital in addressing mental health issues such as depression, Pagel said, and emphasized the fact that, although the economic downturn signaled an uptick in suicides nationwide, neither mental health issues nor suicide is limited by social class or economic standing.

“Mental health and addiction are nondiscriminatory,” she said. While economics, social class or locale may not play a pivotal role in a person’s risk for mental health issues, it

does play a role in a community’s ability to address the problem of depression and suicide, Pagel added. “We are now fifth in the state for suicides, and if you look at all the top counties, they are all small, rural

counties,” she said. “When you’re in a small, rural community, part of the problem is there are limited resources. The new programs to address suicide and mental health are targeted at urban communities and the larger metro areas have more dollars per capita for mental health while we don’t have as many resources and there are transportation issues. It’s a perfect storm, with the most severe cases of people in crisis maybe not able to access the services, or the services are not available.”

The biggest difference for someone who is contemplating suicide, according to not only Pagel, but also Little and Jordan, is knowing there are options, knowing that there are others who care and who want to help.

“If you see someone slipping, reach out and talk to them. It helps more than people realize. Sometimes all they need is someone to listen, and it could make the difference between life and death — literally,” Little said, adding that a community-wide dialog about depression and its sometimes deadly effects is needed so that everyone has the knowledge and understanding to address the issue, whether it is for themselves or someone else.

“It’s sad that the only time this nation has serious discussions about this is when there has been a shooting,” he said.

As for those who find themselves contemplating suicide, Little said there is no magic cure, but there is always a reason to live.

“When you’re there with the blade in your hand, stop. There is no turning back. When you’re dead, you’re dead and there is no hope,” he said. “I’m not saying you’re not hurting – God knows I’ve been there – but think about it; as long as you’re alive and on this side, there is still potential for hope.”

That hope, and the rewards of life, despite the struggles, makes Little glad he was not successful in taking his own life.

“In general, I’m glad I didn’t succeed, but it’s tough,” he said. “I think about it, and if I had succeeded, I think of all the things I would have missed and those moments of wonder.”

A 24-7 emergency assistance line is available through Starting Point at 225-8280. For more information about Starting Point and the mental health services available in Nassau County, visit www.spbh.org.

The Courage To Be... It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. ~ e.e. cummings.

The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War; the fall of the Twin Towers and the devastating cost of an ongoing war against terrorism; the class of 2008 has grown up in a time of history-making advances and earth shattering setbacks.

From a Mars landing and the proliferation of the World Wide Web to mad cow disease and rap music, these teens have been a part of the good events and the bad press that will go down in history books as the defining moments marking the close of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st.

They watched the high-speed death of Princess Diana and a slow-speed chase through the streets of LA. They suffered through Hurricane Katrina, baggy britches and a proliferation of political and entertainment scandals, but they also watched Nelson Mandela rise to power in South Africa and the Atlanta Braves win the World Series.

With text message-calloused thumbs and MySpace pages, they have expanded their world beyond not only the boundaries of Stephens County and Georgia, but beyond the nation’s borders. Heading out into a high-tech world of hybrid cars, medical breakthroughs, a global economy and $4-per- gallon gasoline prices, Stephens County High School graduating seniors are counting on the foundation of a solid education to support their futures and give wings to their dreams.

For many seniors, that firm foundation was built by executing the most delicate of high-wire acts. Considering the almost universal teen struggle between a desire for academic success and youthful

exuberance – with its instinctive quest for fun – finding an equitable compromise between the two can be a demanding balancing act.

Add in the razor-thin line separating having fun and getting into trouble, and that balance beam becomes a precarious high wire.

Now, while balanced high on that treacherous wire, add in a juggling act; keeping aloft schoolwork and sports, family and faith, clubs and hobbies and, oftentimes, a part time job, and you have the day-to- day life of many of this year’s graduating class.

Despite those challenges, however, the Stephens County class of 2008 is one of the most successful graduating classes in recent years, with a significant percentage of AP students and high gradation test scores.

DANEA MARTIN

“It’s a challenge to keep a balance between having fun and doing well in your classes,” said Danea Martin. “Sometimes it is overwhelming, but if you just work your hardest and don’t give yourself excuses, it is also a good lesson in taking responsibility.”

Excited about graduation and enthusiastic about heading off to college, but a little bit sad to be turning the page and saying goodbye to friends and childhood, Martin will be working toward an early childhood education degree.

“When I got to high school, I decided I wanted to be a teacher,” she said. “I had really great teachers through middle school and high school and it’s just something I always wanted to do.”

The impact of educators on Martin’s young life played a large part in her decision to pursue a teaching career. From elementary school teachers Ms. Jarrett and Ms. Sanders to her high school math teacher Ms. Chambers, Martin credits teachers with guiding her path and encouraging her interest in math.

“I like math and history, and I have to mention coach Frankie Whitworth,” she said. “He is actually my most favorite teacher of all time and a big reason why I am so interested in math.”

Along with teachers, Martin’s family and her faith have played a large part in the success she has experienced throughout her school years.

“My parents were a big influence in my life; they supported everything my brother and I did,” she said.

“Even though I want to be a teacher, I don’t know if I will end up being one because I don’t know what the Lord wants me to do,” she added, saying that both her family and her spiritual beliefs have helped her to make decisions throughout high school that she is proud of.

“It can be hard to keep grades up and do all the things you want to do,” she said, talking of her involvement in a number of sports teams and the marching band. “But you have to make good choices and it is important to have a social life and get to know people, also.”

JOSH MORRISON

For graduating senior Josh Morrison, as with Martin, sports and extracurricular activities have played an important part in not only the memories he will take with him as he heads off to Mercer College to continue his education, but in helping to develop time management skills that will be crucial in college and career.

“I’ve played soccer since I was about ten, as well as basketball and baseball,” said the straight-A student who also is active in his church and the Beta Club. “It’s pretty hard to do them all sometimes, but I always seem to find time to balance them.”

Although self-confidence is an important part of the balancing act, Morrison considers friendships as a key component in making high school both fun, and successful.

“You have to find the right friends,” he said, “ones you can hang out with and have fun.” Choosing those friends wisely, however, is important, and helps in making good decisions and staying away

from the pitfalls that some high school students stumble into, Morrison agreed. The credit for avoiding those bad decisions lays, in large part, however, with his family, according to Morrison. “I would give them (his parents) the most credit for helping me stay away from bad decisions,” he said.

“Every since I was young, they gave me a good set of morals. Now is the time when they are tested most, but I know what is right and so I try to do it and remove myself

from those type of situations.” Remembering a Toccoa childhood that included playing catch in the front yard with his dad, going to church

every Sunday and heading to the Old T restaurant for an after-church meal, Morrison said that continuing his education after high school was always a part of the plan and something his parents encouraged and supported.

“It was pretty much understood since I started school that I would be going to college and get a degree,” he said. “A four year degree has always been something I’ve planned on doing.”

Morrison will be joining his older brother, Jack, at Mercer University in Macon in the fall, and will be studying business and possibly working toward an accounting degree.

“I took an accounting class once in high school and really enjoyed that, and both my parents are accountants, so that’s something I can do and enjoy,” he said, adding that math and history have always been his favorite courses and naming Ms. Meeks at Big A Elementary as one of his favorite teachers.

Although classes and teachers and grades have clearly played an important part in Morrison’s youth and education thus far, he said being able to find a good balance of work and fun is important.

“Work hard your first couple years and get your self set so you don’t have to recover ground your last two years,” is his advice to students just entering high school this coming year. “That way, when you get to your senior year, you can have a little fun while still doing well.”

The skill of being well rounded is something that his graduating class as a whole has excelled at, according to Morrison.

”We definitely had some smart people in our class,” he said. “We have a lot of people that I know will be successful and make a difference. Some will be leaders, some are really good athletes; there is just a wide variety and we will look back at our class and see that they were smart, talented, athletic and the best all-around class.”

As a part of the “Y generation,” Morrison sees his generation’s more global focus as a defining characteristic. “I think maybe it both hurts and helps us, but one thing about my generation is how you can be in touch with

someone all the way across the state, the country, the world,” he said. “You can talk to them and see their face

like they are right there, so you can come together and hopefully we can move more towards a global community and help each other out.”

That ability and hope keep Morrison confident about the future despite the conditions of the nation and the world as he moves forward from high school.

“I’m not really too worried about it (the future). I think prices will still go up, there will always be war; some problems will go away and others will pop up,” he said. “I think they will be reoccurring themes so I figure there is not really any point in worrying. You can be concerned about it, but there is no point in worrying yourself to death over it.”

That ability to be confidant, and think positively is, in Morrison’s opinion, the most important lesson he will take away from his high school experience.

“Never think a door is shut or think that you can’t do something or that there is no opportunity,” he said. “There is always an opportunity, so don’t ever burn bridges (because) you might need to cross them again.”

MATT WILLIAMS

For senior Matt Williams, the future, and his generation’s ability to guide that future, is cause for concern. “I’m nervous about the future because it doesn’t seem like we are doing too good right now. I don’t think

America will be a world power by the time I’m 60 or 70,” he said. “It will probably be top 10, but not one, two or three. China will be up there and then and the Euro.” Despite those concerns, however, Williams, who is also headed to Mercer University in the fall, is hopeful that

changes in economics and education in the US can change that scenario. “We need to lower free trade and try to get all the outsourcing to come back, because that is what made

America so successful to begin with,” he said. With plans to earn a degree in environmental engineering, Williams knows the lessons he learned and the

characteristics he developed as a student in the Stephens County School System will influence not only his career but his ability to affect, along with his generation, that national status.

Both his parents and his teachers have contributed to a successful school career thus far, said Williams. “This is a good (school) system. Both of my parents work in the system, and all the teachers are really good

teachers who love what they do and make learning fun,” he said. While his parents, who both are science instructors, influenced his interest in science as well as his desire to

become a teacher later in life, Williams credits Ms Baldwin – his third grade teacher at Eastanollee Elementary – with being his favorite teacher.

“All of my teachers at Eastanollee helped me in different ways, but Ms. Baldwin was my favorite because I learned a lot of basic concepts there that I’ve definitely used,” he said.

With guidance and encouragement from his parents, Williams said a college education was always a part of his plans.

“It was not much of a choice to go to college,” he said. They just always assumed I would go.” Along with support from his parents and teachers, Williams said his own self- motivation and the support of his

friends accounts for his success in high school. “The key to success is self motivation,” he said. “I had a rough freshman year; I went to high school and

wasn’t really ready for it so I was sort-of messing around. But I really wanted to end up in the top five percent, so I just really pushed myself to finish but I had to do really good in classes to make up for my (bad) freshman year.”

Despite that self-imposed rigorous educational focus, Williams acknowledges that finding a balance between work and fun is an important part of making high school a positive experience, and says the things he will remember most are the friends he made, the fun they had, and the football seasons.

“The most fun part of high school was the football seasons, and at our 20-year reunion, we will still be talking about Taren Poole,” said Williams, who was a member of the marching band and attended almost every football game.

Williams advice to new high school students is to make new friends, and forming bonds and breaking down barriers is something he feels his graduating class was able excel at.

“I don’t see stereotypes in our class and I don’t see discrimination,” he said. “I have friends in all areas; I have close friends who play sports and I have friends I can say hi to in the halls and it doesn’t matter who they are. I have made friends with people I never would have thought and there is just no big divide in our class.”

TANESHA OGLESBY

For Tansesha Oglesby, the ability to choose friends with the same goals, morals and interests – along with strong and supportive guidance from her mother, have made a significant impact on her success in high school and helped her make good choices throughout her school career.

“I am proud of not being influenced by crazy things and knowing what is right and wrong,” she said. “That is my advice, to keep your head in the books and stay strong. Don’t be influenced by the things going on around you in Stephens County High School. Things like that may seem like they are cool, but they’re not and staying focused will get you where you need to go.”

That “where you need to go,” for Oglesby, includes Georgia State University and a degree in film and video. Hoping to become a producer, and with plans to make a movie about growing up in Toccoa and her experiences here, Oglesby credits her mother with a great deal of her motivation and success.

“I am close with my mom, we are more like best friends,” she said. “I grew up in a single parent household. My mother and grandmother raised me and three other girls. I know that had to be hard, but we just made it work.”

While attending college was not an automatic assumption, graduating as an honor student and the chance to continue her education are something both she and her family is proud and excited about, said Oglesby.

The influence of teachers on her educational growth has been important since elementary school, and Oglesby said she still remembers her fourth grade teacher Kim Hudson.

“She was a very sweet woman and I remember she worked with me as much as possible because I was hard headed and didn’t want to do my homework,” Oglesby remembers, adding that, although drama classes were probably her favorite classes in high school, it was her literature teacher Shelby Fricks that stood out as her favorite teacher.

“She (Fricks) is like a second mother to me,” she said.

CATHERINE BRIDGE It was the influence of her mother that Catherine Bridges credits for having the greatest impact on her

schooling and the success she has achieved. The daughter of a single mother, who also happens to be the current principal at Liberty Elementary, Bridges

said it has always been the expectation that she would go on to college and continue her education. And she said the struggles and sacrifices made by her mother to support her and her brother’s education played a vital role in preparing her for that path.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been in a place where I’ve ever needed something and not had it because she (Catherine’s mother) dedicated all her time to us and making sure we had what we needed.” Bridges said. “A lot of times, that meant her sacrificing things, but she has always spent so much time making sure we had what we needed and let us know she cared for us and she has been there to influence us in what was right and wrong.”

Bridges, who will be attending the University of Georgia and working towards biology major, said her mother being an educator helped to emphasize how important it is to get a good education.

A freshman-level biology course ignited an interest in the field, and attending the Governor’s Honors Program in the biology field only increased her desire to make it her career.

“I like to understand thing and biology seems to have so many questions that have to be answered,” she said. “I was actually in a class (at the honors program) where we studied gelato sections of the brain and what research is being done in that field, and that was just very interesting to me.”

Bridge’s fascination with science, however, has its roots in classrooms even earlier than that freshman high school class.

“I remember one of my favorite teachers was Ms Moore. She took education to a new level and made it interesting,” she said. “We did a lot of science stuff in there an that’s probably where I started being interested in science. She (Moore) really pushed us a lot; everyone thought she was a hard teacher but she pushed you to put forth your best effort and I learned a work ethic from that class.”

Although working hard and maintaining that stringent work ethic was important to Bridges, she said the ability to balance both work and fun is an important part of getting the most from the school experience.

“I played softball all my life, and I started playing tennis in middles school,” she said. “Balancing that with schoolwork is challenging, and there have been times where I wondered why I did it, but high school has been fun and I’ve really enjoyed it. I am definitely ready to go, but I will miss all the friends I've made and I definitely have memories that I will never forget.”

Those memories, which include climbing trees and playing with her brother during her younger years as well as all the funny things she and her friends had to find to do to pass the time in Toccoa, will be ones that she carries with her as she continues her education, as will the lessons and morals given to her by her mother.

“Staying out of trouble was not hard,” she said, acknowledging that many of her peers face struggles with alcohol, drugs and even pregnancy. “I have to focus on my future, and my mom has always made a point to show me what is right and wrong and I stick to the morals I was raised with,” she said. “I just keep in mind that if I was to mess round with any of that type of thing, my future would definitely suffer.”