Congratulations to the more than 110 seniors who began their journey into adulthood with last evening\u2019s 56th Commencement at Bellwood-Antis High School.
\nHundreds of friends and family, teachers, faculty members and administrators joined at Bellwood-Memorial Stadium to honor the Class of 2003.
\nFollowing a standing ovation, the audience joined the class in listening to the welcome by senior Steve Crider.
\n\u201cWe have finally made it,\u201d he said. Those five simple words summed up the entire evening.
\nChristopher Skibo, valedictorian for the Class of 2003, offered words of encouragement to his class. He explained the difficulties and challenges the class has already overcome, and offered advice on how to possibly handle the future ones.
\nDanielle Patton, the class\u2019s vice-president, introduced guest speaker Ret. Lt. Col. Samuel Enfield, a 1956 BAHS grad.
\nEnfield was the first BAHS graduate to attend Westpoint Military Academy, where he graduated in 1961. He joined the army that same year and worked from infantry officers to lt. colonel. He retired at that rank in 1984. Afterwhich, he worked in the private sector as a systems analyst.
\nEnfield discussed the importance of being diligent in the quest for knowledge. He told the class that as long as they learn a little each day, the sky will be the limit.
\n\u201cYou all should just allocate a little time every day to learn,\u201d he said.
\nHe offered three tips of advice.
\nFirst, he said the develop competitive work skills. He said to choose the skills that will still be needed in the long-term. College, vocational studies, on-the-job training, volunteer work and military \u2013 al, he said would offer that initial step.
\nSecond, he said to learn to use computers.
\n\u201cAnd not just for e-mail and to surf the web,\u201d he said.
\nHe said learning computer programming and other systems functions is essential in today\u2019s job markets.
\nBut he also said, as his third snippet of advice, that to \u201cbe informed beyond computers.\u201d
\nHe said it will take more than computer skills to succeed.
\nFollowing the presentation of academic awards by high school principal Mike Sakash, Salutatorian Jaclyn Davis offered her words on what the future holds for the class.
\nHer speech mimicked Lt. Col. Enfield.
\n\u201cThe willingness to learn is the key,\u201d said Davis, emphasizing that success isn\u2019t just born in a classroom or on a computer. \u201cCollege does not lead to success, life-long learning does.\u201d
\nShe also encouraged classmates to become more involved in their communities.
\nRetiring school district Superintendent Rodney Kuhns commended the class on their achievements, noting it was the highest ranking academic achieving class in the last 14 years at BAHS.
\nHe said 37 percent of the graduating class were on the Honor Roll this year; that BAHS seniors scored 16 points higher than the national average and 39 points higher than the state average on the Scholastic Aptitude Test; and that 14 seniors scored 1200 or higher on the SAT.
\nHe also mentioned conference championships for the baseball team and the boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 track teams and the district champion Blue Devil basketball team.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s easy to talk about excellence,\u201d he said.
\nKuhns noted that 75 percent of the graduates planned to further their education; 19 percent will enter the workforce; and six percent will enter into the military.
\nFollowing the receiving of diplomas, the students, led by Class President Steve Crider, turned their tassel from the right to the left, threw their hats in the air, and began the next chapter of their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Congratulations to the more than 110 seniors who began their journey into adulthood with last evening\u2019s 56th Commencement at Bellwood-Antis High School. Hundreds of friends and family, teachers, faculty members and administrators joined at Bellwood-Memorial Stadium to honor the Class of 2003. Following a standing ovation, the audience joined the class in listening to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}