The valedictorian of a Brooklyn FDNY-focused high school, who overcame an abusive household and found refuge in her studies, celebrated graduation alongside her classmates.
“Growing up in an abusive family, life often felt like navigating a storm with no end in sight,” Kailey Frank, 17, top of her class at the Captain Vernon A. Richard High School for Fire and Life Safety, said in an inspiring commencement speech in June.
“Yet in those darkest moments I discovered a strength that I never knew I had,” Frank, of Park Slope, declared. “Education became my sanctuary, a place where I could escape the turmoil and find solace in knowledge… My teachers and mentors became my guiding lights.”
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The teen later told The Post, “This is my way of defying the odds.”
Frank and 32 other graduates were celebrated by enthusiastic friends and family at the FDNY Training Academy on Randall’s Island. Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh commended the class of 2024 for their perseverance through the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted their social lives and classroom routines.
“Throughout unprecedented times marked by disruptions caused by the pandemic, you have already learned about the unpredictability in life,” Kavanagh told the grads.
“In the midst of your first year, the usual routines—spending time with friends and family, going out, and simply being a regular teenager—came to a halt. Despite these challenges, you persevered, and your graduation today is a testament to your adaptability and resilience, two traits that are essential in the FDNY,” she said.
“You can make plans, do everything right, but unexpected challenges will inevitably arise,” she stressed.
Out of the graduates, 21 completed the FDNY entry exam prep course, and nine will attend the FDNY Youth Summer EMS Academy.
Frank, who said at the time that she plans to start classes at the Academy in July, aspires to become a first responder.
“I just want to be an example for all the other little girls out there who don’t feel like they can do it,” she said. “Impossible is always possible.”
Of her turbulent family life, she said she and her mother, “Don’t have a good relationship.”
“That was definitely a challenge, especially seeing other little girls having their mom in their life,” she said, without elaborating on the alleged abuse.
“Sometimes I wish I had a mom to support me, but at the same time I just had to face my adversities head on,” Frank said.
“I couldn’t be defined by – ‘Oh yeah, she has an abusive parent,’” she said. “I want to show the world that you’re more than your struggles, you’re more than your challenges.”
Captain Vernon A. Richard High School is named in honor of a Brooklyn-born FDNY firefighter who was killed on 9/11.
