Top Four DCHS Seniors: The End Of An Era Brings Mixed Emotions

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

With Dade County High School’s graduation coming up this Friday, May 16, the top four in the Class of 2025 shared wisdom they’ve learned in their high school years with the Sentinel and talked about goals for the future.

The top four are Lila Evearitt (valedictorian), Rilee Privette (salutatorian), Anthony Hanson (faculty representative), and Jonathan Dupree (class representative).

Evearitt (the daughter of Tad and Wendy Evearitt) started attending Dade County Schools in ninth grade. Privette (daughter of Greg Privette) started in sixth grade, as did Hanson (son of Erik and Dina Hanson) and Dupree (son of Corey and Carey Dupree).

Hanson skipped a year of high school by taking dual enrollment classes, so he is graduating a year early. Dupree also skipped a year (eighth grade).

The group was involved in a variety of extracurriculars throughout high school, from sports to band to Beta Club. Evearitt was in band her freshman year, she played volleyball the following two years, and she played soccer all four years. She was also part of Beta Club, FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America), and FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes).

Evearitt is glad she tried out a little bit of everything. “It was fun to meet new people in different atmospheres. Everything is different—in good ways. Band is so different from volleyball.”

Privette spent two years cheerleading and participated in as many cheer squads as she could, but she chose to shift her focus to school and work her senior year. She was also part of Beta Club and FCA.

After attending so many games as a cheerleader, she was burnt out by it and wasn’t as involved with school spirit and events this past year. “I’m a little regretful of that because I’ve been rushing to get out of high school and build my GPA,” she said. “I wish I would’ve slowed down, enjoyed the moment more, and been more involved senior year.”

Music was a big part of Hanson’s high school experience. He was part of the marching band and concert band and was the principal clarinetist. He also participated in Beta Club and the NASA HUNCH program. The only thing he would change if he could do his extracurriculars over again would be to show more interest in becoming an officer in Beta Club.

Dupree joined the track team and started playing tennis in high school, and he fell in love with tennis. Sadly, there weren’t enough boys interested in tennis to compete this year, but he joined the wrestling team instead. If he could go back and add one thing to his extracurriculars, it would be music related because he wished he was more musically talented.

Dupree added, “Recently, I transitioned from my focus from having fun with sports to getting ready for college and starting a career by getting experience and trying to get scholarships.”

Evearitt and Dupree are attending Covenant College in the fall while Privette will be starting at Chattanooga State Community College in a year and Hanson is headed to East Carolina University.

Evearitt is majoring in education, minoring in chemistry, and plans to earn her master’s in education. She might pursue a doctorate down the line. Her goal is to teach high school chemistry at Dade County. “One of the reasons I want to be a teacher is so I can do mission work in the summer and on school breaks. I also have a lot of family here that I love.”

She added, laughing, “I want to take Coach Stanton’s job.” Watch out, Coach Stanton! The DCHS girls’ soccer team will have a new coach if Evearitt’s plan works out.

Just for fun, the Sentinel asked if the students had any dream jobs, realistic or not. Evearitt would be a baker and cake decorator at a fancy restaurant. She wouldn’t want to run the business, she specified; she’d just focus on baking.

Privette is attending Chatt State to become a dental hygienist. She worked hard to complete all of the prerequisites which earned her an unexpected gap year. She’ll spend the year working and might get to travel.

As for a dream job, Privette thinks being famous would be fun, but added, “I can’t handle when people hate me or are mean to me, so that would be really hard, but it’d be fun to have fans. You get paid just to walk down a street or sign your name on something.”

She doesn’t have a dream place to live, but she plans to stay within a few hours of Dade County. “As much as everybody says, ‘I can’t wait to get away from here,’ we are always going to find roots in what we’ve built here. I love so many people here, and it’s always going to hold a special place in my heart, so I want to make sure I’m still close.”

Having earned his patient care technician certification through the healthcare pathway at DCHS, Hanson will begin working as a PCT in a hospital in Tarboro, N.C. this summer. He is excited to move to North Carolina where his brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew live. Then, he plans to complete the pre-med program at East Carolina with the goal of becoming an ENT surgeon (ear, nose, throat, i.e. otolaryngologist).

His dream job and city are tied together with his work and research goals. In addition to becoming an ENT surgeon, he wants to research tracheal transplants, endocrinology, and diabetes at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, N.Y. This is where his mother was one of the first people in the world to receive a tracheal transplant. She’s also a type one diabetic, so Hanson’s dreams are fueled by his mother’s story and his desire to improve the lives of many people.

Dupree is entering Covenant’s three-two engineering program to become a mechanical engineer. He’ll spend three years on Lookout Mountain and two years most likely at Georgia Tech. He plans to focus on getting experience through internships while in college.

After graduating, he plans to work in Chattanooga and move back in with his family so he can save money to buy a house, paying with cash instead of getting a loan and fixing up the house himself. He doesn’t have a dream place to live, and he thinks it’ll be easiest to stick around the tri-state area.

Dupree’s dream job would be anything involving traveling and seeing new places, like being a travel influencer.

As for the students’ favorite classes at DCHS, Evearitt, Privette, and Dupree chose AP Chemistry with Dr. Doug Bailer. Having not taken AP Chem, Hanson chose Cyndy Bowden’s dual-enrollment English as his favorite class.

Dr. Bailer was a favorite teacher among the crew. Evearitt added Stan Gibby and Ashley Parker to her list. Privette added Philip Bell. Hanson added Allison Vice and Chris Chance. (Chance no longer works for Dade County Schools, but he greatly influenced Hanson when he was the band director.) Dupree listed David Howard and Trent Walliser.

The four shared some fond memories from high school. The senior trip to Dollywood was a highlight for Dupree; Hanson enjoyed the many evenings getting ready with the band before a football game; and Privette and Evearitt recalled some fun antics in AP Chem (like making slime or hiding from their classmate, Paul, when Dr. Bailer was in on the prank).

Another highlight for Evearitt was going to state with the soccer team each year. Although she tore her ACL at the very beginning of her senior season, she still supported the team from the sidelines. “It’s been hard, but I love the team,” she said. “They’re all really supportive. I wish I was out there, but still being around them is nice.”

As the students approach a season of transition, they’re looking forward to a mental break, but they’re also full of emotions. Evearitt said, “I’m very ready to be done with classes. I love my teachers, and I’m sad I won’t get to see my friends every day, but I’m ready for the new stuff that will come with college.”

Hanson shared that the coming change is both exciting and intimidating. “I try to make myself as ready as I can be, but there’s only so much you can do. I feel prepared, but I’m still scared and sad because a lot of my friends are underclassmen.”

Dupree said, “I’m ready to move on, but all the ties I have, all the friends—I hope to not lose them. I’m relieved, but I’m also wary, because I may be done with work here, but the next work is going to be a lot harder, and I have to pay for school.”

After listening to her classmates share, Privette said, “I’m feeling emotional talking about this. I’ve spent the last two years of high school trying to skip ahead into college, so I’m a little sad. I’m realizing I have no time left, and I didn’t enjoy the moment when I should have. I think I have bright things ahead of me, and I’m sure it’ll be great. I’m just not ready.”

The Sentinel asked the students if they had any regrets from the last four years as well as what advice they’d offer their freshmen selves. Hanson wishes he had connected with more people earlier on in high school, explaining that he was more outgoing freshman year than his sophomore or junior semesters. “I’ve come out of that this year, but I still feel like I haven’t connected with all the people that I really wanted to.”

His advice to his younger self would be, “Talk more. You don’t need to worry about saying the exact perfect thing the first time. People will understand what you’re trying to say.”

He would also tell himself not to feel bashful or ashamed for reaching his goals, saying, “You worked for it; you deserve it.”

Dupree wishes he would’ve tried harder both in school and socially. As fourth in his class, he clearly did just fine academically, but he said he didn’t put in much effort. “I just sat back. I didn’t study, I don’t do notes, so I wish I would’ve put a little more effort in.”

Because he skipped his last year of middle school, he entered high school not knowing his classmates, so he would tell his younger self to put in more effort early on to get to know people. He began to feel more connected sophomore year.

Dupree added, “I wish I could have multiple priorities, because I prioritize people. I know how much I care about my relationships, so I just wish I could put the same amount of effort in my work and things that are just for myself.”

Evearitt wouldn’t change anything about her high school experience, explaining, “It’s not that I don’t have any regrets, but the choices I made made me who I am today, so I’m grateful for that. I wouldn’t change it.” Hanson agreed.

Her one bit of advice would be to worry less. “I’m proud of how hard I worked academically and in sports. It got me to where I am now, but at the same time, I was very stressed all the time. I wish I had trusted in God’s timing. I would get so stressed about everything I had to do, but everything worked out in the end.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Privette shared honestly, “I have a lot of regrets. I was very stuck for a while and didn’t really find myself until this year. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t think I was that smart, and I didn’t have self-confidence. I wasn’t hanging around the right people, and I spent a lot of time in toxic environments. I wish I would’ve stood up for myself and surrounded myself with better people, but I’m still grateful for where I ended up today.”

In her graduation speech, Privette plans to share that she used to struggle with mental health. “In eighth grade, I told my dad that I didn’t see myself graduating from high school,” she explained. She couldn’t have imagined coming this far in life and even graduating second in her class, and she’s especially glad that she gets to make her dad proud in that way.

“I want freshmen and anyone who doesn’t believe in themselves to know that they can turn their lives around no matter how dark things may seem. Live in the moment, believe in yourself, and trust the Lord. That sums up the answers to all of my issues.”