Youngstown Christian awards diplomas to 35

By Harold Gwin

One senior had to leave the country to begin college and missed the ceremony.

The 35 graduates of Youngstown Christian School may have finished the 12 years of schooling required to earn a high school diploma, but they’ve all got a lot of education ahead of them.

Michael Pecchia, school president, said he expects that college attendance by the senior class will be 100 percent. Membes of the class have already accepted $756,000 in college scholarships for next fall, he said.

Commencement took place at 2 p.m. Sunday in the high-school auditorium.

Wayland Russell, former CEO and founder of Rainbow Rentals, delivered the address. The local entrepreneur has been a long-time supporter of Youngstown Christian and is a former school board member.

Katherine Hartman is class valedictorian and Matthew Teleha is salutatorian.

The class of 2009 is the largest graduating class in Youngstown Christian’s 34-year history, Pecchia said. The school opened as an elementary facility in 1975 but didn’t open a high school until 1980. This is the 29th senior class.

Most of the students who graduated Sunday have been at Youngstown Christian since preschool, Pecchia said.

One member of their class who didn’t make it to the commencement ceremony is Sirineen Muangsiri, an exchange student from Thailand.

She spent her junior and senior years here and has earned her diploma but had to return to Thailand before commencement to begin college, Pecchia said.

The seniors chose red, black and gold as their class colors and selected the song “This Is Your Life” by Christian performers Switchfoot as the class song.

“Living Revolutionary, Nothing Less Than Legendary,” is the class motto.

Youngstown Christian, with 420 students, continues to grow. Enrollment is up 100 from just three years ago.

The school is looking at the possibility of buying Byzantine Catholic Central School in Boardman which is closing this year.

Pecchia said Youngstown Christian is at capacity at certain grade levels, and the Byzantine building could become a K-8 or junior high school feeding into Youngstown Christian’s high school.

gwin@vindy.com