Liberty graduation culmination of lifelong friendship, passing illness, dreams fulfilled

YOUNGSTOWN

To hear Logan Hunkus and Noah Persson tell it, their bond of friendship goes back to before they were even born.

“Our parents have been close friends for a long time,” said Noah. “We’ve literally known each other, though, since we were babies.”

The 18-year-olds spent their life growing up together, playing at each other’s houses, and going to school together. So to them, and to Liberty High School Principal Rocco Aducci, it seemed only fitting that they both share the honor of being valedictorians for the Liberty High School Class of 2014.

Hunkus and Persson each finished with a 4.0 grade-point average, putting them together at the top of the 105-member class. Normally, a tie-breaker system, based on points from classes taken, is used to determine who will be valedictorian and who is salutatorian.

But Aducci, knowing their close background, said it seemed like a good time for Liberty to have the first co-valedictorians in school history.

“They grew up together,” said Aducci. “It was just a great fit.”

So when he called them to his office not long ago and asked whether they would mind sharing the honor, they were thrilled to accept.

Despite their close relationship and their neck-and-neck race to the top, each insisted that there was never any competition or rivalry between them.

And their same-time speech — which Noah said was his mother’s idea — focused on, what else, but friendship.

For Holly Burgdorf, graduation was a welcome relief after months of pain and anxiety from a serious health scare.

Read more of their stories in Friday's Vindicator or on vindy.com.