AUGUSTA — Former Oak Hill High School teachers Roger and Gina Fuller — who occasionally return to substitute teach there — came to watch their granddaughter graduate Monday night and saw her win one of two Challenge Foundation Fund scholarships.

Abigail Fuller of Sabattus, who also celebrated a year of being cancer-free, embodied what Principal Patricia Doyle described as a student who went beyond her own expectations and those of everyone else.

Fuller is off to Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, next year to study sports management.

“Sports have just been my life since I was little,” she said. In particular, she hopes for a career in basketball team operations. In a way, she’s emulating her father, Jason Fuller, athletic director at Lewiston High School.

Abigail Fuller, robed in crimson red, was one of 82 members of Oak Hill High School’s Class of 2016. Girls wore the red, and the boys wore royal blue.

The march of Oak Hill High School’s seniors into the Augusta Civic Center on Monday night started a series of high school commencement exercises at the venue.

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It continues at 7 p.m. Thursday with Messalonskee High School, 7 p.m. Friday with Erskine Academy, 6:30 p.m. Saturday with Gardiner Area High School and concludes with Cony High School’s ceremony 4 p.m. Sunday.

Fuller said she’s also had to deal with having seizures all through school, and that they were so bad in eighth grade she could only attend school half days.

But she spent four years as Oak Hill field hockey’s goalie, played junior varsity basketball, helped other teams and become a member of the National Honor Society.

“She’s just overcome a lot of obstacles both in and out of school,” said her mother, Janet Craig. “From Day 1 she’s been very resilient.” Craig said Fuller suffers from a rare genetic disorder and has about a dozen doctors in Boston overseeing her medical care.

Abigail Fuller is the first of the Fuller grandchildren to graduate from Oak Hill, with her sister next year and brother entering as a freshman.

“We’re proud of her and will be prouder when she graduates from college,” Gina Fuller said. Doyle told the hundreds of attendees that Roger Fuller started the fund years ago with money from his Milken Educator Award. Initially it was a loan program to help purchase an individual computer. But once the school started providing computers to all students, the fund converted to a scholarship.

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Rhyanna Austin of Lewiston, was the other Challenge Foundation Fund scholarship recipient. She will use it at the University of Maine at Machias toward a bachelor’s degree in secondary education with an English concentration. Her goal is to be an English teacher in South Korea.

“I grew up learning and studying about Asia,” she said, adding that she’s kept up a pen-pal friendship started in her freshman year at Oak Hill with Ju-Eun Kim of Seoul, South Korea.

“I love Oak Hill. It’s basically family for me,” Austin said. She said she particularly enjoyed observing how the class grew and changed.

In her address to the class, Valedictorian Brooke DePuy spoke about many of the class being together from seventh grade and urged them to look ahead. “Imagine we live for about 100 years. In only 18 years, I have learned that it is important not to let other define who you are and to always carry a positive attitude,” she said. “There are still roughly 82 more years ahead of us to continue learning, growing and evolving into the people we aspire to be.”

Salutatorian Kylee Veilleux offered some ideas for the future: “Don’t just exist in this life; live in it. Go bridge jumping even though you have aways been afraid to; eat that chocolate chip cookie even though you are on a diet, and don’t be afraid to say what you believe even though everyone disagrees with it.”

Just before the ceremony, Jessica Lane of Litchfield, wearing the gold cords indicating a 3.0 grade point average, said she was still undecided about her future. She plans to get a job and consider her options. She said she would miss her classmates in paricular. “Everyone was close and got along,” she said.

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In particular, one of her friends, Kristina Caron of Sabattus, is heading to the University of Southern Maine to study the music business.

Duncan Trotter of Litchfield, wearing a bow tie, said he spent three years at Oak Hill after moving from Virginia.

“At first it was rough,” he said. “After I got used to the class of 2016, it was well worth the move.”

Kyle Beauparlant has his career selected. He’s heading to Washington County Community College for the electricity technology program. After he completes that, he will take his journeyman’s test. His father went to the same college and did the same program.

“I’ve always had the interest,” Beauparlant said.

At commencement, Beauparlant received the Ryan J. Guay Annual Memorial Scholarship, given to a student entering a technical field, as well as several other scholarships.

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Tamara Morgan, who studied culinary arts at Lewiston Regional Technical Center and was a member of the National Technical Honor Society, said she is heading for Johnson & Wales University, in Providence, Rhode Island. Her favorite dish is macaroni and cheese. “I make it with four different kinds of cheeses: Gouda, parm, cheddar and pepper jack,” she said.

Keenan Pinard of Sabbatus said his immediate future involved heading to Project Graduation at the Alfond Youth Center in Waterville, and then community college leading to university for a degree in business. He said the recent class trip — whitewater rafting in the Kennebec River — was great.

As the ceremony continued inside the main auditorium of the civic center, a pair of yellow school buses waited outside to take the new graduates to the all-night, chemical-free celebration.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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