Area seniors leave a ‘mark’ of their own

Among their plans are pranks, a ‘tractor day’ and other special events.

By ANGIE SCHMITT

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

Families are planning open houses, and high schools are hosting awards banquets, as the class of 2007 prepares for its transition into the great, wide, “real” world.

Then there are traditions that are a little different, such as Springfield Local’s, where seniors mark their graduation in a style of their own.

“We do a tractor day,” said Elisabeth Evan, 17, a senior at Springfield High School. “A lot of the guys drive to school on tractors.

“People always say we’re a hick school.”

Springfield High seniors share another unauthorized tradition with many Valley high schools. Every year the graduating class pulls a “senior prank” on the rest of the student body, Evan said.

Last year, an unknown party switched students’ belongings among the school’s lockers. (Many students at the school leave theirs unlocked.) This year’s class has yet to organize a stunt that will make them legendary in the eyes of future seniors, she said.

As Evan prepares for Grove City College, she and her classmates are planning not only pranks, but also their final evenings together. Movie nights with her girlfriends, pranks and tractor day all serve the same purpose, she said.

“You’ve got to have as much fun as you can with the time that you have left,” she said. “I think it’s just kind of hit us that we’re going to be leaving this place.”

Skip day

Howland High School seniors practice an informal tradition replicated around the Valley as well. Every year, the Monday after prom, seniors give themselves a one-day vacation, said senior John Wagner, 18.

“We’ve earned a day off,” Wagner said. “I’ve been here all 13 years.”

Bound for Ohio State University, Wagner was his school’s homecoming king. He is also scheduled to be a commencement speaker, he said. But that didn’t stop him from joining his classmates on “senior skip day.”

Wagner said he spent his day off sleeping in and watching “The Price is Right,” after school administrators visited malls and parks, punishing truant seniors last year.

The graduating class at Youngstown Christian School is only 26 strong this year. But the school still has a tradition that helps seniors commemorate their final days. Youngstown Christian seniors “will” personal items to the remaining school population, said senior Alyssa Rojas, 18. The wills are read aloud at the senior banquet, she said.

“Me and my two best friends, last year, got willed key chains from girls who graduated,” she said. “My best friend’s sister, she used to always drive us around, so she gave us little toy cars.”

Before Rojas moves to Wellesley College in Boston, she’s planning to will something special to her younger brother, but hasn’t decided what she will bestow on him yet.

Something to remember

Lakeview High School seniors know they won’t be forgotten with the coming fall or long after commencement. Since before 1920, the school has collected a wallet-sized picture of every graduate to hang in a frame with their classmates on the “Senior Wall,” said senior Brittany Massacci, 18.

“They have everyone that’s ever graduated from there up on the wall,” she said. “It goes all the way down the hallway.”

“It’s a long hallway,” she added.

Massacci said she likes the fact that her image will still be haunting the hallways of Lakeview while she attends Youngstown State University or Cleveland State University in the fall, she said.

In Poland, more than the awards breakfast, more than the commencement, seniors are looking forward to wearing shorts, said senior guidance counselor Judy Volosin.

The school’s strict no-shorts policy is relaxed for one week near graduation when seniors have “dress-down” days, she said. The tradition began as a spirit week where students wore shirts displaying the name of the college where they were going, she said.

Principal Brian Wolf met with Poland seniors for an assembly about the graduation process earlier in the year, said Volosin. Students’ greatest curiosity wasn’t about caps and gowns or even college applications — it was about shorts, she said.

The eagerly anticipated dress-down week begins after Memorial Day, said Volosin.