Foxburg — The 2014 class of Falcons took the stage Friday night in a blue and white graduation ceremony at Allegheny-Clarion Valley High School.

Sixty-seven students received their diplomas following an hour-and-a-half commencement in the gymnasium.

Those seniors gathered for the final time after spending 13 years learning together, said salutatorian Erin Alworth, who will attend Duquesne University in Pittsburgh this fall to study prepharmacy.

In her address, Alworth reminded her classmates of how nervous they were when they began kindergarten more than a decade ago, then how those nerves resurfaced as they entered high school, and again now as they prepare to move on to adulthood.

Alworth compared her class to fish in a small pond at A-C Valley.

“This has to be the scariest (transition) yet because we have been swimming with the same fish,” Alworth said.

However, Alworth thanked the A-C Valley community for preparing her and her classmates to face the future and expressed confidence in the 2014 Falcons.

“It’s not the size of the pond that matters, it’s whether you swim with purpose,” Alworth said.

Alworth introduced Dr. Carolyn Sampselle of the University of Michigan School of Nursing. Sampselle, a 1959 graduate of A-C Valley, advised the graduates to trust themselves and to stand for their beliefs while still respecting those they encounter along the way.

Valedictorian Makayli Terwilliger plans to attend Grove City College in the fall to study pre-optometry. She shared some of her favorite class memories and jokingly lamented the number of tests she and her friends sat through.

“We can finally say that we made it,” Terwilliger said. “One of the greatest lessons of the future is to know that we can cope. We are never alone.”

After band and chorale performances and the awarding of diplomas, class President Anna Lowrey declared the 2014 Falcons officially graduated.

Students, families and teachers celebrated with photographs, hugs and even a can of silly string.

Four students wore special stoles signifying their entrance into the military. The rest are attending college or trade school or entering the workforce.