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BE BOLD, GRADS TOLD
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Halle Moran, 2014 Lowellville graduate hugs her great-grandmother, Doris Burns, during Sunday’s commencement ceremony at Lowellville High School. Burns, a 1935 Lowellville High graduate, was introduced at the ceremony as the oldest living Lowellville alumnus.
By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK
LOWELLVILLE
A 2004 graduate of Lowellville High School told this year’s graduating seniors that he envies them.
“Your lives are blank slates waiting to be filled with the life of your choosing,” Thomas Haren, a Parma lawyer and the Republican nominee for the 23rd Ohio Senate District seat, told the Lowellville class of 2014 at its commencement Sunday.
They each get to choose how to live their life, he said.
“There’s always going to be someone telling you that you’re not good enough, that your choices won’t work,” he added. “But the best part about graduation is that you don’t have to listen to them anymore.”
He encouraged the 56 graduates to take risks, be bold, and to find their passion and follow it.
“Don’t let others define the limits of your choices because you are too scared to be different,” he said.
Dom DeFrank, 19, is ready to begin filling in his blank slate. He will attend Youngstown State University.
“I’m going to major in business and see where life takes me from there,” he said. “It’ll be a great experience.”
Though he’s confident he’s ready for the next chapter in his life, he said commencement day was bittersweet.
“I’m going to miss my good friends that are going away to college,” he said. “It’s going to be different not seeing these kids every day. It’s kind of hard knowing that once I walk out that door today it’s over, I’m never coming back to high school again.”
During his four years at Lowellville high school, DeFrank participated in basketball, Italian Club and choir.
Guiliana Davanzo, 18, is also ready for college. She will attend YSU in the fall to pursue a career in nursing.
“It’s going to be a lot of work,” she said. “It’s going to be a big change.”
But she feels prepared for it by her years at Lowellville High School.
Davanzo was a cheerleader, ran track and cross country, and played in the band in high school. She will miss those activities and being with her friends, she said.