Graduating from high school is a milestone in itself, but 194 seniors had the special privilege of being the first graduating class at Highlands Ranch's newest high school.

Commencement for Rock Canyon High School's class of 2007 was held at 11 a.m. May 25 at Shea Stadium in Highlands Ranch.

Rock Canyon High School opened the 2003-04 school year for 210 freshmen,and initially held classes at Rocky Heights Middle School in Highlands Ranch. Construction on the school was completed in time for the 2004 school year, recalls Principal Dan McMinimee.

As Rock Canyon's first principal, McMinimee has been with the seniors since the beginning. This also will be his last year at Rock Canyon. Effective July 1, he will serve as the Douglas County School District director of schools for the Ponderosa feeder area.

"I walk away knowing that they had a lot of input into what we became," McMinimee said of the seniors. "They're smart, they're articulate -- they're just a wonderful group of kids."

Rock Canyon's new principal will be Kim Rauh, assistant principal at Chaparral High School in Parker.

McMinimee said 194 seniors graduated May 25, and 66 of them graduated with high honors. He said about 50 percent of the school's students live in the Castle Pines/Castle Rock area and about 50 percent live in Highlands Ranch area.

"We have 20 valedictorians," McMinimee said. "It's pretty awesome."

Valedictorian Marie Godla gave a speech to the Class of 2007 during the commencement titled "Breaking Out of the Bubble."

"Rock Canyon graduates, let us now break out of the Highlands Ranch bubble and become citizens of the world," Godla said in her speech.

Senior Weston Eggett gave an address to Rock Canyon seniors titled "Ladies and Gentlemen." He said Rock Canyon is unique in that the Class of 2007 seniors were all friends before they had a chance to judge each other. The theme of his speech was that you have to say goodbye before you can say hello again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let us say goodbye to worry and say hello to one glorious future," he said in his speech.

Valedictorian Taylor Temby, 18, of Littleton, said the school gave her -- and her class -- the opportunity to be a participant, rather than a spectator.

"Rock Canyon gave a lot of the students an opportunity to be leaders at a young age since we started from scratch," Temby said.

Temby was a member of student council her freshman year and participated in the National Honors Society, soccer, track, cheerleading and the scuba club. She plans to go to the University of Colorado at Boulder this fall.

Senior Lindsey Warner, 17, of Highlands Ranch, was one of the originals at Rock Canyon. She spent her ninth-grade year at Rocky Heights while the high school was being constructed.

Warner said it was strange and difficult at times to be a freshman attending classes at a middle school.

"You're not thrown into the regular high school experience," Warner said. "It was very difficult. (But) I think we became a lot closer as a high school. We've been together since the beginning. We built our own high school, essentially."

Warner was the student council activities director all four years and had her hands in the planning of the first homecoming and prom. She said planning all these events for the first time was "extraordinary to find in a high school."

Warner also was the senior class president and graduated with a 3.75 grade point average. She plans to go to Colorado State University in Fort Collins in the fall.

McMinimee spent the 2002-03 school year planning Rock Canyon High School with a core group. He said the graduting seniors, who were eighth-graders at the time, actually helped pick the school's name, its mascot, the Jaguars, and its colors, black and gold.

Science teacher Kristi Piccone said she worked on the core team with McMinimee to come up with the school's "traditions." She said they wanted to make sure the students would have every opportunity and event -- and more -- as kids in other schools.

Piccone said one of the most memorable things for her during the past four years was Rock Canyon's first homecoming.

"Our first homecoming dance -- to me that set the stage for the rest of the four years," Piccone said. "Everything was so perfect for them for their first homecoming."

Social studies teacher Megan Brown, who also has been with Rock Canyon since the beginning, said that even though the school has grown in the past four years, students still embrace its "small-school" feel.

"I'm sad to see them go, but I wish them so many great adventures and I hope they come back and share them," Brown said.

Piccone said she has a message for the 2007 graduates:

"I would tell them to follow their dreams and go after their hearts, because they're the only ones that can make that happen," she said.

Click here to see more photos from the commencement.

Click here to read the principal's message to the Class of 2007.

Click here to read a column from Lindsey Warner.

Click here to read about 66 RCHS students who graduated with high honors.