Slippery Rock Area H.S. sends off 156 Rocket seniors
SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock Area High School officially “rocketed” 156 seniors onto the next step of their lives with the high school graduation ceremony Friday night, May 31, at Slippery Rock University’s Morrow Field House.
The university’s athletic complex, normally decked in green, was adorned on this day with the high school’s traditional red, as parents, family members and classmates packed the building to wish the Rocket seniors well.
One of the seniors eager to move on was Alex Cambridge, who said he has aspirations of becoming president one day. For the immediate future, he is headed for the U.S. Navy, where he will study commercial aerial engineering.
“I’m nervous as heck,” said Cambridge. “This is the end of high school. I have to go on to live a real life, and that's scary as heck.”
“It’s nervous and exciting,” said fellow senior Devan Kriess, who is headed for Butler County Community College to study computer networking. “But it’s a relief in a way, now that I am taking the next step into my future.”
“It's taken a long time to get to this point, and a lot of hard work’s paid off,” said Christian Pallack, who is headed to the New Castle School of Trades. “I can’t wait to get out.”
After the seniors filed into the field house, the “Rocket of Distinction,” Meghan Bencic, opened the ceremony by listing off the various accomplishments of the Class of 2024.
“Our high school production of ‘Newsies’ was a recipient of six Mancini Awards,” Bencic said. “Our track and field team won PIAA States. Both our swim team and girls soccer team were region champions. And all of our sports teams and activities had very memorable seasons.”
The class valedictorian, Viktor Zahn, encouraged the rest of his class to not be discouraged from taking advanced courses and to have faith in their ability to overcome their flaws.
“It’s all right if you have trouble focusing in class or you constantly distract yourself with your phone,” said Zahn. “These tendencies are perfectly natural. It isn't the people who are born without them who succeed, but the people who have learned to cope with them.”
Zahn isn’t heading far to continue his education, as he has committed to Slippery Rock University, the site of the high school graduation ceremony.
Following Zahn was the class salutatorian, Kaitlyn Parson, who is headed to Purdue University.
“Do not sweat the small stuff,” Parson said. “We have all stressed about a class, a test, a friend who is mad at us and many other day-to-day activities. But life is way too short to spend so much time stressing about making everything perfect. … This is why it is so important to live in the present.”
After the diplomas were distributed and the dust settled, senior class president Tyler Arblaster — who is headed to Carnegie Mellon University — closed the ceremony by giving a shout out to the fellow senior members of the boys track and field team, who won the PIAA Class 2A state championship three days earlier.
“Be curious, question everything and take control of your life going forward,” Arblaster said, just before his fellow seniors turned their tassels to signify their graduation.
