Butler Class of 2017 had notable achievements
BUTLER TWP — Five-hundred-twenty-one seniors from Butler High School with a wide variety of experiences and future plans celebrated the completion of their high school education Tuesday night.
Class President Jefferson Ford gave an address in which he listed some of the numerous accomplishments of the class of 2017.
About 80 students graduated with a GPA of 4.0 and 47 graduated as honors students with distinction for having a GPA of 4.3 or higher. He also noted that the girls track team was WPIAL champions this spring and in the winter, every varsity sport made the playoffs. The class was also charitable, raising money such as $10,000 through the Caring Angels program to benefit Butler Memorial Hospital.
“We are entering the world having proved our merit and our collective fortitude,” he said.
Students speakers Benjamin Wong and Emily Pellegrino gave their explanations of the commencement's theme “What color is your parachute?”
Students' “parachutes” are different colors based on their values and experiences, and those will stay with them as they move on from high school, Pellegrino said.
Wong told the class that it was time to pull their rip cords.
“The most vibrant of parachutes are the color of compassion, open-mindedness, love and selflessness,” he said.
An unusual day that many students bonded over and fondly remembered on commencement night was Feb. 7, when the school was evacuated and students were sent home early because of a natural gas leak.
Two of the student speakers mentioned the gas leak day, as did graduate Vance Stroup before the ceremony.
“It's not every day that you get out of school like that,” Stroup said.
Stroup and his classmates in Kristina Smith's homeroom also cited winning an eighth-grade volleyball competition as one of their highlights. They commemorated the victory this year when they wore shirts that read “Homeroom Volleyball Champs.”
Several members of Butler's graduating class are enlisting in the military.
Trevor Leary is joining the U.S. Marine Corps, where he will train to be a firefighter stationed at military air fields.
Leary participated in the school's junior ROTC program and for his senior year studied protective services at the Butler County Vocational Technical School.
He said he was always interested in joining the military, but earning his EMT certification and joining the Butler Township Volunteer Fire District Station 3 this year made him want to become a military firefighter.
“I would recommend it to anybody, especially if they don't have a direction in life and don't know what they want to do after high school — go to Vo-Tech,” he said.Richard Leonard is also among those enlisting. He will leave for Army training at Fort Jackson in South Carolina in August.“It's something I've always wanted to do. My grandfather was in it and he was one of my biggest role models,” he said.Cullen Lorenz also attended Vo-Tech for heating, ventilation and air conditioning training. He has already earned the certifications needed to join the workforce and has a job lined up doing refrigeration work, which is an important job, he said.“I've always been very passionate about providing comfort,” he said.Other members of the class said they are looking forward to going to college.Katelen Shuler said she plans to study music education at Westminster College.She credited high school orchestra teacher Katherine Vercek for inspiring her to pursue that career.The ceremony, initially planned for Art Bernardi Stadium, was moved to the Senior High School gymnasium because of a weather forecast that included a chance for thunderstorms. An overflow crowd watched the ceremony projected onto a screen in the school's auditorium.
